68 FLOWERS OF THE HEATHS AND MOORS 



salts, the latter is light, with few mineral salts. Low-moor peat is 

 greasy and wet; high-moor peat is dry, and conducts acid salts well. 

 On a low moor the soil is rich in flood material, on a high moor it is 

 poor; and there are few fungi in the first, many in the latter. Myco- 

 rhiza and carnivorous plants are rare on low moor and common on high 

 moor. The high moor is obliged to depend for moisture on the 

 atmosphere. 



A sort of lichen-heath develops in which Empetrum, Birch, Heath, 

 Juniper, &c., occur, and Carex, Hair-grass, Mat-grass, and Rushes 

 also occur, and in their absence Lichens. 



The dwarf-shrub heath is treeless, with dwarf evergreen shrubs, 

 mainly ericaceous and small-leaved, stunted, and xerophilous. The 

 temperature is usually low, and the atmosphere not dry. The soil is 

 a quartz-sand mainly reconstructed during the Ice Age. Over this 

 there is a layer of humus where Ling and Whortleberry form a thick 

 dense scrub of not more than i ft. high, forming heather-peat or raw 

 humus, acid and inimical to ordinary forest mild humus plants. 

 Heather is the dominant plant, and is associated with lack of nutrient 

 substances and a low temperature. 



Many plants are decumbent or prostrate, being frequently wind- 

 swept, and the shoots are curved and brittle. Ling, Empetrum, 

 Cross-leaved Heath, Broad-leaved Whortleberry, Thyme, &c., and of 

 the pinoid type Juniper (deciduous, thin-leaved plants), Broom, Furze, 

 are typical. These plants form the chief food of game, whose distri- 

 bution is regulated by their occurrence. 



Several associations are made up by the dominant species, as 

 Callunetum, Ericetum Ericae Tetralicis, Myricetum, Myrtilletum. 



On the heaths and moors we find the pretty deep-blue Milk wort 

 growing in tufts, as radiant as some alpine flower. Grassy Stitchwort 

 links its life with Furze or Broom. Tormentil, with its straggling 

 flowers, forms tufts amid the tussocks. Spread over the turfy sward 

 the creamy flowers of Heath Beclstraw betray the sterile soil. Cat's 

 Foot is rare, and found on the lonely heath. Wall Hawkweed, with 

 many another of this group (of which there are some 200 species), 

 grows on the bare patches near the woods. Sheep's Bit Scabious on 

 rocky heaths or hills chooses a hollow, in which its blue tassel-like 

 blooms, with the graceful pendent bells of the Hare-bell, reflect the 

 colour of the sky. The heaths, too, are clad in a wide mantle of 

 Whortleberry, Cross-leaved Heath, Crimson Heath, and Ling. Where 

 Furze grows the Dodder trails on it, sponging as a parasite, as do 

 Eyebright and Red Rattle, and Common Sylvan Cow-wheat on roots 



