JOO DR. J. W. HESLOP HARRISON ON 



drainage cutting is readied, where we have a definite bank- 

 side. Throughout its southern front, the lower marsh battles 

 with the reed swamp vegetation. 



West of this embankment, the tendency to separate into 

 marshes of two distinct levels progressively diminishes until, 

 to all extents and purposes, no distinction exists. Conditions 

 become much drier until the site of an ancient Salix associa- 

 tion comes into view. Again to the west, a region very 

 manifestly drier than any hitherto considered is evident, 

 which, by virtue of this dryness, merges almost insensibly into 

 the neighbouring meadows. 



Finally, the whole narrows into a finger-like angle, main- 

 taining a coterie of lush-growing plants of even opposed 

 affinities. 



With such emphatically different environments, it would be 

 an ill-judged procedure to treat the formation as a whole, and 

 we shall therefore endeavour to divide it into recognisable 

 units and to point out the peculiarities of the Floras. 



The Detached Eastern Angle. 



Concerning the vegetation of this nook, there is no 

 possibility of doubt ; it forms emphatically a Junco-caricetum, 

 although not of uniform cliaracter throughout, owing to the 

 configuration of the land. In the centre, this is gently 

 elevated, and from this slight eminence it falls slowly enough 

 away to the east and south, but even less definitely to the 

 north. In consequence, a sort of zonation of the vegetation 

 displays itself, and as we pass inward we proceed from an 

 almost pure Caricetum paludosae to a Junco-caricetum in 

 which the co-dominants are the same Carex and 'J^unciis 

 effusus. At all times the latter approaches in its general aspect 

 the fen associations owing to its high percentage of dicoty- 

 ledonous plants, of which one, Valeriana sambucifolia, practi- 

 cally attains dominancy in July in the centre. Round this is 

 a zone in which Angelica sylvestris and Lotus nliginosvs become 

 very plentiful, but as we proceed outward the ground 

 becomes very wet, and the Junco-caricetum gives place to a 



