TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 75 
© On the Increase of the Ergot upon Grasses. By R.G. Larnam, M.D. 
The increase of the Ergot upon grasses is real; not merely apparent, and referable 
fo a greater amount of observations. Eight years ago, having found a single specimen 
upon the Alopecurus pratensis, the author sought for it carefully, autumn after autumn, 
but in vain, until 1842, Since then it has been abundant; being found on a variety 
of species, and over large areas. Of the eighteen species on which he has found it, 
it is commonest on the Lolium perenne, rarest on the Hordeum murinum, It was 
found last year for the first time on a water-grass, viz. the Glycerium fluitans, The 
Phieums and Fescues are very subject to it; so is the Dactylis glomerata; in other 
words, some’ of the best pasture grasses. The Cynosurus cristatus is remarkably free 
from it. aS BERGA 
On the Turf of the Cambridgeshire Fens. 
By the Rev. L. Jenyns, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S. 
The remarks made by the author in this communication related principally to the 
fens in the neighbourhood of Swaffham Bulbeck, and to Iselham fen. It was stated 
that the Cambridgeshire turf was not formed of Sphagnum, like the peat found in 
many of the mosses in England and Scotland, but owed its origin to decomposed 
aquatic plants of yarious species associated with the remains of trees. This circum- 
stance appears to have given rise to two kinds of turf, which are distinguished by the 
Ba geers in the above districts by the names of ypper and lower, ‘The upper turf 
is much more compact and heavy than the lower, and generally of a darker colour, 
though sometimes with a peculiar reddish tinge: this is the best turf for common 
fires, and burns to a white ash, The lower turf is lighter and lighter-coloured, and 
its texture becomes more loose and spongy the lower it is dug: this is the best for 
ovens (though now the only turf used in some places from the scarcity of the other 
kind), and burns toa red ash, These two kinds of turf appear to pass gradually one 
into the other, the lower consisting almost entirely of the bark, wood, roots, and 
branches of former forests, above which the upper has been formed afterwards, and 
deposited in successive layers. The thickness of the whole bed is very variable. In 
Swaffham Bulbeck fen it runs, perhaps, in general from two to five feet. In Iselham 
fen the deposit of upper turf (which is also much more heavy and compact in that 
locality) is considerably thicker: the men there sometimes dig eight turf deep, each 
being fifteen inches in length; this however is an exception to the rule, and seldom 
met with. 
The trees which are met with at the bottom of the moor, and which rest imme- 
diately on the clay, consist chiefly of oak, yew, hazel and willow, It is said that in 
Iselham fen they occasionally find the fir and the vine also. The stems of the larger 
oaks are sound at heart and black throughout, though with the surface somewhat 
decayed, and presenting an appearance as if charred, But many of the smaller trees, 
or portions of them, are quite spongy, and may be cut as readily with the knife as soft 
cheese: these are not unfrequently found penetrated through and through by the rhi- 
zoma of the common reed (Arundo phragmites) now growing in the fen. 
The two sorts of turf aboye distinguished are not always found together, The 
upper exists without the lower in localities in which there are no buried trees to have 
given rise to the latter; but wherever the lower is found, the upper has always existed 
aboye it formerly, though now the upper has been so much removed in some districts 
by digging that the lower alone remains, As the upper turf is due to the decay of 
aquatic plants in a soil saturated with water, there would be nothing to prevent its 
growth at the present day if the condition of the fen remained unchanged; but in 
fact, from repeated drainage, the fen is now much too dry in most places to allow of 
the turf growing to a sufficient extent to compensate for the large quantity dug for 
fuel. It is the opinion of the turf-diggers at Iselham that formerly the turf grew 
- about twenty inches in sixteen years (twenty inches being the length of a full-sized 
turf when first cut). ‘lhe lower turf, consisting entirely of the remains of trees 
which grew in the spots in which they are now found before the fen was formed, it is 
evident, can never be renewed when removed. Hence the time is not far distant when, 
in some localities, the supply of turf for fuel must fail altogether, 
The principal plants observed first to show themselves in pits from which turf has 
been dug, and which appear to assist greatly in its formation, are the Chara hispida 
