Alpine and Arctic Floras 



crack or cranny of the rock, which has been filled up 

 by blown dust and moss-earth, &c. Its pink shoots will 

 be found growing through the moss-cushion, and 

 obviously it is living on the soil formed by many ages 

 of lichen and moss-growth, and is also attacking the 

 rock or clay below. Yet the moss surrounds it, and a 

 struggle is going on between the two of them. If the 

 rainfall is heavy and frequent the moss will conquer, 

 and a Sphagnum bog will cover the ground. Should 

 the blaeberry manage to hold its own, aided by dry 

 spells and plenty of wind, it will form a sort of blaeberry 

 moor, and eventually a heather moor growing on a 

 dryish peaty soil, which, however, has still a coating of 

 mosses and lichens. 



In another part of the summit one may find such 

 sedges as the deer's hair Scirpus. That part might turn 

 into a cotton-grass moor, which may become a continu- 

 ous battlefield between the silvery cotton-grass and the 

 Sphagnum, lasting perhaps for hundreds of years, for 

 some cotton-grass peats are many feet in thickness. 



But on very dry or steep slopes or, for example, on 

 a limestone ridge, the m^ountain grasses manage to 

 conquer the moss altogether, and the summit might 

 become an alpine meadow or, in our own country, sheep 

 pastures, that is, grass heaths (chiefly Nardus mixed with 

 rushes and sedges), or the beautiful, green, closely 

 nibbled turf of mountain limestone or basalt. 



When one lifts one's eyes from the battleground on 

 the summit and surveys the surrounding country, one 

 sees miles of peat-moss, heather moor, cotton-grass 

 swamp, or grass heaths.* 



It was by this sort of proceeding that Britain was 



* The reader will hardly realise the enormous area occupied by such vege- 

 tation unless he consults the botanical survey maps of Smith, Lewis, and 

 others (see p. 224), or, which is preferable, visits such hills himself. 



91 



