CHAPTER III 



THE VEGETATION OF THE COAESEK SANDS AND 

 SANDSTONES' 



The very fine-grained sands and sandstones have 



much in common physically with clays, since 



Physical they are close-textured and retain a large 



cliaracters of , • p , t > i p n 



sands and proportion ot water, in the case oi nne- 



sandstones. grained sands, such as alluvial sands, and 

 soft fine-grained sandstones which weather 

 so as to produce a considerable depth of soil, the vege- 

 tation is of the same general type as that dealt with in 

 the last chapter. The impure sandstones, containing a 

 large proportion of clay particles in addition to the grains 

 of silica, give rise on weathering to sandy loams, which also 

 bear the same general plant-covering; if, on the other hand, 

 there is a large proportion of lime, as in the calcareous 

 sandstones, the vegetation is altered and belongs to the 

 type characteristic of calcareous soils. But the fairly 

 pure, coarse-grained sands and the geologically more 

 recent sandstones have a well-defined vegetation of their 

 own. 



Coarse sandy soil is a dry soil, because it has little 

 water-capacity, a feeble power of holding up ground- 

 water by capillarity and suffers from rapid evaporation. 



1 The vegetation of the harder, i.e. older, (Palffiozoio) sandstones and 

 grits is treated separately (Chapter V). 



