38 A StfEW FLORA OF 



it looks mucli less, for as usually happens in climbing Mils, the 

 highest part cannot be seen from the bottom, and we reach several 

 successive ridges, each with a craggy edge of gritstone, only to 

 find that there is another terrace to cross and another ridge to 

 climb before the real highest is gained. All down this sloping 

 bank the fallen rocks are scattered, rounded masses of fine-grained 

 gritstone, so soft in texture, that it crumbles away easily into a 

 silvery-grey powder, which is often scattered over the bare turf, 

 the micaceous particles glittering in the sunshine ; and from the 

 summit crag all down the bank the heather sweeps (brown for 

 ten months of the year, bright pui-ple for two), thick- swelling 

 over the terraces and in the hollows, stunted and scraggy amongst 

 the rocks and where the soil is thin. The three kinds of heath 

 are all here in plenty, and in July the JEriccB are already in flower 

 whilst the Calluna still remains in bud, and there are Vaccinium 

 myrtillus and Umpetrum nigrum scattered amongst them, and Erio- 

 phorum vaginatum and feathery tufts of Nardus waving in the 

 mountain breezes, and scattered clusters of Aira flexuom, con- 

 spicuous by its bright red stems and silvery brown panicles. At 

 the bottom the furze bushes and the foxgloves grow tall and fine, 

 but they stop before we reach the higher levels ; and the slopes 

 and hollows are filled with bright-green forests of Pteris, which 

 grow up to form intertangled thickets in the late autumn, and 

 sometimes with Blechnmrij and the lady-fern, and Lastrea oreop- 

 teris scattered amongst it. The damper spots are spongy with 

 mosses, Sypnum fluitans, Polytrichum commune, and Sphagnum, 

 ranging in colour from deep red to bright green, with pale green 

 cushions of Leucolryum and Aulacomnion palusfre, and amongst 

 them Drosera rotundifoUa, Carex ampullacea, Eriophorum angusti- 

 folium, and the clustered sword-like leaves of Nartliecium. The 

 streamlets which issue from the hill-side ripple noisily down their 

 shallow, stony channels, or contract and sink down, and are 

 hidden for awhile beneath overhanging grass and rushes. The 

 principal mosses of the well-heads are Sypnum condensatum, 

 K. cuspidatum, Bartramia fontana, and Bryum pseudo-trique- 

 trum, the first brownish, the others pale green, or the last 

 often brightly tinged with red. Amongst them Chrysosplenium 



