A SIinVRY OF THE I.OWF.R TKKS MARSHKS QQ 



(2) THE iMARSH FORMATION. 



To disentangle the crowded mass of species encountered 

 in the marsh and classify them in associations is, for the most 

 part, beyond one's powers owing to what presents itself to 

 much more than the casual glance as a heterogeneous layer 

 of closed perennial vegetation. In the main, one could 

 describe the whole as a Juncetum, but by listing the various 

 species one would give a fictitious idea of uniformity very far 

 indeed from squaring with the actual facts, it being possible 

 definitely to refer the extreme east of the main marsh to the 

 fen association, and equally satisfactory to assign the western 

 extremity to a Juncetum glauci. These two associations glide 

 imperceptibly into one another in the body of the marsh, and 

 thus give rise to the confusion alluded to above, the causes of 

 which will be apparent when we amplify the meagre details 

 concerning the area given previously. 



To begin with, it must not be forgotten that to the east we 

 have a small detached marsh cut off by a hedge and a deep 

 lode or ditch, bounded on three sides by rich meadows and 

 ending abruptly on the south at a fence separating it from the 

 first of the water meadows. This, in many features, differs 

 markedly from the area comprising the main part of the 

 marsh. 



Jumping over the eastern lode (a matter of considerable 

 difficulty) we discover that the T?-o!lins marsh proper is divided 

 into two by the feeble North Lode at the 18 foot level, so that, 

 for about one half of its total length, we have a narrow high 

 level marsh differing widely in many ways from the more 

 extensive lower marsh. These two divisions ofifer widely 

 diverse conditions of moisture, since the upper one is much 

 wetter to the east and becomes drier as it thins out ; besides, 

 it undergoes greater vicissitudes in its fortunes as a marsh, 

 inasmuch as it has to blend with the zone of cultivation 

 which, however, it does more or less abruptly. The lower 

 marsh, on the contrary, becomes, wetter southward, and to a 

 less significant extent westward, until the next transverse 



