42 The Soils of Scotlcmd 



localities in Britain for these species j among them may 

 be mentioned the Cairngorm mountains on the north, and 

 the Lochnagar group on the south of the Dee valley, 

 forming the eastern region of the Central Highlands. To 

 the south-west of these regions Ben Lawers and the 

 neighbouring hills in Breadalbane have attracted many 

 botanists by the variety of their flora. Robert Smith 

 pointed out that these floristically rich areas are accom- 

 panied by considerable tracts of mountain grassland of 

 a comparatively dry type, which occurs on soils formed 

 from rocks richer in minerals than the quartzitio schists 

 which form the basis of the ericaceous "moors^" (heaths). 



The Central Lowland Plain of Scotland is an extensive 

 tract of comparatively low country, only 

 land Plain occasionally exceeding 650 feet (c. 200 m.) 

 in elevation, and stretches from the Firth 

 of Clyde, on the west coast, eastwards over a low 

 watershed to the eastern coastlands of the Firths of 

 Forth and Tay, with a considerable extension north- 

 eastwards along Strathmore (the great valley). This 

 great transverse depression, separating the Highlands 

 on the north from the Southern Uplands in the south, 

 includes the greater part of the agricultural and industrial 

 areas of Scotland, and contains the largest cities, (xlasgow 

 and Edinburgh, as well as many other important centres 

 such as Perth and Stirling. 



The soils are almost all of glacial or alluvial origin, 

 and although very fertile near the coasts, there are 

 extensive tracts o£ glacial "till" or boulder-clay which 

 are generally unproductive as farmland and are now 

 left uncultivated as wet grassland or peat-bog. The best 

 areas of farmland are largely on the lower ground near 

 the coasts; in the valleys among the lowland hills the 

 farmland is restricted to the bottoms and lower slopes 

 of the valleys, though sheep-grazing extends all over the 

 1 Robert Smith, 1900. 



