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BOTANICAL PROBLEMS AT AUSTWICK. 
c. A. CHEETHAM, 
(a) The occurrence of Calluna and like species on the 
limestones. 
(b) The ‘ survival’ (?) of Silene maritima on the high level 
limestone escarpments. 
(c) The varying floras of the old turbary pools on Austwick 
Moss. 
(a) The area to be investigated is Moughton Scar, a con- 
siderable part of which is covered with Calluna, Erica, 
Empetrum, Vaccineum, etc. The finest growth is in the 
hollows, and here there is a considerable depth of peat. Samples 
have been taken just above the subsoil some two feet below 
the surface, where it is of a dark brown colour. After air- 
drying 35 grammes were taken and dried 8 hours at 100°C. This 
reduced it to 30°71 grammes; it was then ignited and gave 
4°34 grammes of a reddish coloured residue which was heated 
with nitric acid, leaving 3°5 grammes. The residue left on 
ignition represented 12°4 per cent. of the air-dried, or 14°4 per 
cent. of the oven-dried peat.* 
Samples of the peat were boiled with caustic potash and 
examined microscopically in the hope that some light might 
be thrown on the plants which had formed the peat, but without 
success ; no mosses were detected and the only plant remains 
were Calluna rootlets and mycelium, but as the peat is much 
cracked in dry weather the surface vegetation can easily root 
to this depth. 
The sand below was examined and found to be free from 
lime, and of a sharp-angled, gritty nature, the grains small 
and fairly uniform giving a hard compact bed with a narrow 
iron-coloured band, possibly ‘pan.’ It seemed quite possible 
from the nature of this material that the finer matter has 
gradually been washed out and made the whole less water-tight. 
The subsoil rests directly on the limestone. 
There are plenty of grit boulders about as evidence of 
former ice action, even if we do not look across Crummock Dale 
to the classic examples at Norber. 
At the end of the Ice Age the surface would be covered 
with a clayey deposit and in “the hollows water would collect, 
and it is still hoped that evidence of the vegetation history may 
yet be obtained from the peat which has resulted from it. 
Leaving these hollows for the higher parts, Ca//una is seen 
growing on a soil free from peat ; the habit of the Calluna is 

* This work was kindly undertaken by Mr. W. H. Burrell, F.L.S. 

Naturalist, 
