Produced by Chris Whitehead, Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: Desert Types. (_For names of species, see page 7._)] _NATURE LOVER’S SERIES_ ASPECTS OF PLANT LIFE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE BRITISH FLORA BY ROBERT LLOYD PRAEGER AUTHOR OF “OPEN-AIR STUDIES IN BOTANY,” “IRISH TOPOGRAPHICAL BOTANY,” “A TOURIST’S FLORA OF THE WEST OF IRELAND,” “WEEDS,” ETC. WITH COLOURED FRONTISPIECE AND NUMEROUS BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1921 PREFACE In the following chapters an attempt is made to deal, in a quite elementary way, with some of the wider aspects of plant life--to discuss questions which arise in the mind from a contemplation of the vegetation which clothes with a green mantle the surface of our own country. No essay is made to enumerate or define the plants to be met with in the different types of ground, or in the different geographical areas, which go to make up the British Isles: there are already plenty of excellent handbooks and local floras in which that aspect of native plant life is treated. The vegetation is taken rather as a whole, and its whence, and when, and how are considered with as little of technical phraseology as the subject allows. The influence on plants of their physical environment, and the intimate inter-relations of the vegetable kingdom with the other great manifestation of organic life, the animal kingdom, are briefly considered, as is also the unique relation existing between the plant world and the human race. These chapters are intended to be used in conjunction with simple observations in the field, such as any person of enquiring mind, unversed in science, may be tempted to make during idle hours on a summer holiday. To Professor G. H. Carpenter and Mr. W. B. Wright I am indebted for suggestions and emendations where I have trespassed on the domains of zoology and geology respectively. R. LL. P. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE PREFACE 3 I. ON FARLETON FELL 9 II. PLANT ASSOCIATIONS 30 III. PLANT MIGRATION 48