202 SOME MINOR PROBLEMS CONCERNED IN THE LOCAL
of South Sussex (sandstone principally) is quite different. I do not
know whether it has ever been suggested that North Norfolk may
represent an older state of vegetation.
Another disturbing element in distribution is the agency of man.
The farmer has enclosed the commons and cut down the woodland ;
he has taken away our Bracken and other sand-loving plants, and
has drained our wet meadows and so exterminated the Adders-
tongue and Sundew and other bog-loving plants. On the other
hand, his introductions have not been commensurate. Where it
is possible to compare modern lists with ancient ones, the Essex
flora cannot be said to have gained. Some charges are occasionally
made against collectors and herbalists, but these have but little
weight in a neighbourhood like Felstead. Some species of pretty
flowers have gradually been transferred to cottage gardens ; but it is
questionable whether they would have survived in the circumscribed
areas now allowed to wild flowers.
This circumscribed area introduces more prominently the factor
known as the struggle for life, and the final outcome of that struggle
must tend to the local extinction of many forms. It will be necessary
to give some details. We have at Felstead the meadows, hedgerows,
and small woods allowed to wild plants. The meadows now, as we
have before said, are so well drained as to be almost unable to sup-
port any bog forms, although a few linger. The hedgerows and woods
may be taken together, as from time to time the rank vegetation of
either is cleared away.
First in the early spring comes the Arum ("Lords and Ladies"),
and as it has the bank pretty much to itself up to flowering time it is
very common. Later comes the Ground Ivy (Glechoma) and several
other forms sufficient to set up a competition for space, and none of
these, although familiar enough, can be regarded as so evenly dis-
tributed as the Arum. As the season advances the competition
becomes very keen, and results in the establishment of a few forms
proper to the ditch, hedge, or bank as the case may be. The ditches
here generally produce in abundance Figwort and Epilobium, or
Reed and Sedge. The hedges (of Whitethorn) become overrun with
Briar, Bramble, Honeysuckle, Vetch, or Clematis. The banks
chiefly produce Campion and Stellaria, and later on various plants
in diminished numbers as they may get the chance to pierce the
otherwise dense foliage. The law is that in a hedge long neglected
the vegetation is divided among a few forms. On the other hand, if