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TIIE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
whenever the earth was deeply ploughed; and later, during the War, 
Poppies abounded upon the trenches in Flanders and in Gallipoli. 
The Poppy capsule contains very numerous small seeds; under the 
plate crowning the capsules, a ring of apertures will he found, and 
these serve to scatter the seed very effectively from the ripe capsules, 
when swayed by the wind. Thus a very few plants, scarcely notice¬ 
able, would suffice to provide seed for a very fine display on newly 
dug up earth, favourable to the growth of the species. 
About 1910 the ga}^ appearance of the Aldwych building-site in 
London attracted much attention. Unfortunately some mischievous 
persons added to the display by throwing garden-seeds over the 
palings enclosing the site, thus rendering the lists published in the 
newspapers valueless for scientitic purposes. But there were some 
five or more other building-sites in the City and West End, to 
which public attention had not been called, that were also gay with 
an alien liora. These were quite free from any suspicion of having 
been tampered with, lieference to the article quoted above (Journ. 
Bot. 1912, 117) will show that the plants growing upon these sites 
could be separated into four groups—Forage plants, Small-seeded 
plants, Wind-distributed plants, and Escapes from cultivation ; and 
that such plants would have had no difficulty in reaching these sites 
by ordinary means of distribution. The views there expressed 
received confirmation from Mr. Upton, of the Bedford Office, who 
had actually seen rough herbage being mown down near the Norfolk 
broads, and was informed that it was destined for use in towns for 
nose-hags, to keep the horses quiet, whilst tumbrils were being 
loaded ; he later observed a row of horses, harnessed to tumbrils, 
actually scattering forage about upon the Bloomsbury site. Forage- 
plants were, as a fact, the most numerous on these sites. 
Mr. A. B. Jackson states that when trees are grubbed up at 
Dawick, Peebles, for replanting, the Foxglove springs up. It is well 
known that a single plant of Foxglove produces many thousands of 
seeds. Groups of these plants, which have probably at some time 
existed in the park, could easily have impregnated the soil with an 
abundant supply of their seeds, and subsequent groups have, no doubt, 
renewed the supply of seeds from time to time; but one can scarcely 
resist the conclusion that the seeds must have retained their vitalitv 
for several years—as also in the instance narrated by Anne Pratt 
(Flowering Plants , iv. p. 121; 1873). 
The woodlands in Essex and other eastern counties are chiefly 
what are known as Oak Associations, the timber trees being mostly 
oaks. Beneath them is a dense undergrowth of Corylus Avellana , 
Carpinus Betulus, and sometimes ash. .So dense is this undergrowth 
that ground-vegetation remains in a moribund condition until a space 
is cleared, and light and air admitted. Each year a section of these 
woods is thus cleared, the undergrowth being cut down and sold and 
some of the timber trees felled. These sections are so arranged that 
the whole wood is cleared during a period of ten or fourteen years, so 
that each year one of the ten or fourteen sections is exposed to light 
