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the moderate humidity of the atmosphere in central 

 Europe also favour the local development of close grass 

 and herb carpets of the succulent meadow type, non- 

 fibrous, tall and profuse ; and also, according to circum- 

 stances, of shorter pastures presenting drier, less luxuri- 

 ant types leading to the dry steppe grass-lands. In 

 places, the contest between forest and meadow, tree and 

 grass, is keen and, beside local conditions, man's in- 

 fluence has often turned the scale in favour of pasture, 

 seldom of forest. From a comparison of virgin soils in 

 eastern Asia and America, it seems that originally the 

 best for the transformation of such combinations of 

 meadows and woods, sometimes called wood-meadows, 

 into a park scenery, are rich alluvial plains. Pastures 

 also exhibit a great variety, not only in their com- 

 position but in their adaptations and modes of life, 

 depending entirely on local circumstances : greatly 

 resembling the steppe, for instance, are certain short and 

 meagre tracts of dry, stunted grasses, carpeting lime- 

 stone rocks over a thin coat of soil. 



Leaf-shedding shrubs sometimes constitute lasting 

 communities in the form of thickets, e.g. hornbeam or 

 hazel-nut copses on sunny limestone hills, or again 

 willow and alder thickets in river marshes; but these 

 are of local occurrence. More important are the heather 

 moors of various kinds which occupy large portions of 

 poor soil areas in north-west Germany, in Denmark and 

 Scandinavia. Again, peat-bogs or high-moors, especially 

 in the northern portion of this region, and in the moun- 

 tains, develop in badly drained localities. Marshes are 

 frequent and varied. 



It should be kept in mind that the relations between 

 the natural physical environment and the vegetation have 

 been infinitely complicated by the intervention of man. 



