Mar. 191].] BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH 149 
Sub-formation IIL. calcareous meadow, is a very distinct 
* 
type on the other hand. 
Sub-Formation I—Marsh-Meadow and Wet Pasture. 
This includes two types: low-lymg wet ground with a 
high water-table, to which the term marsh-meadow is most 
applicable, and sloping drainage channels or ground in 
the vicinity of springs, more naturally described as wet 
pasture. But there is no essential difference in the vegeta- 
tion which would make it possible to separate them. The 
first type especially is closely allied to a true marsh and 
grades into it, but is distinguished by the dominance of the 
grasses as a rule, or the presence in quantity of certain 
distinctively meadow plants, such as Spirea, Trifolium 
repens, etc. On the other hand, the distinctive marsh 
plants, such as sedges and species of Juncus, are never 
absent, and are usually prominent. 
This is obviously an intermediate type between marsh 
and meadow, but in Orkney at least cannot be described 
as a transition, because it practically never does pass into 
meadow. It is, moreover, a common, if not extensive, type 
of vegetation and requires independent notice. 
Just as two types of marsh are recognisable—“rich marsh” 
on deeper and more fertile soil, and “ poor marsh” on poor 
ground—so there are two corresponding forms of marsh- 
meadow. On a firm infertile clay or sometimes peaty soil 
similar to that which bears a “ panicetum,’ but further from 
the water-table, a grass association may occur which might 
correspondingly be called “poor marsh meadow” or “poor 
wet pasture.” 
In contrast to typical marsh-meadow, which has a fairly 
luxuriant growth, including tall herbs, such as Spirwa and 
Angelica, poor marsh-meadow has an extremely short sward 
with much Curex panicea and glauca, and many rosette 
plants. The most characteristic brightly flowering herb is 
Leontodon autumnale, the presence of which may be used 
to distinguish it from poor marsh, into which it grades. 
Like its corresponding marsh type, it may occur on sloping 
as well as horizontal ground. The green strips already 
referred to as “moist grass slope” consist of a vegetation 
similar to the poor marsh and poor marsh-meadow of 
