116 The Heath Formation 



Frequent. 



Polygala vulgaris (agg.) Desohampsia flexuosa 



Potentilla erecta Agrostis vulgaris 



Galium saxatile Anthoxanthum odoratum 



Antennaria dioica Festuca ovina 



Luzula multiflora Blechnum Spicant 



Carex Goodenowii Lycopodium clavatum 



C. dioica Cladonia sjrp. 



Sparse or local. 



Genista anglica Trientalis europsa 



Melampyrum pratense var. Juniperus oommunia 

 montanum 



A typical list given by Hardy ^ from the Dee valley 

 (Aberdeenshire) is very similar. 



Pinewood association (Pinetum sylvestris) . 



It is generally held that within the limits of these 

 islands Firms sylvestris is native only in Scotland. Cer- 

 tainly it was formerly native in many parts of England 

 and Ireland, where its remains are found buried in peat. 

 Clement Reid writes: "Firms sylvestris seems to have been 

 abundant throughout Britain during part of the Neolithic 

 Period, for its cones are abundant at the base of peat- 

 mosses and in 'submerged forests.' It afterwards disap- 

 peared from the South of England and only recently has 

 been re-introducedl" It is just possible that it may have 

 survived in small numbers in the South of England till 

 the extensive clearing of the lighter soils gave it a 

 fresh opportunity of asserting itself. But it was certainly 

 re-introduced into the south in the eighteenth century, and 

 perhaps earlier, and it quickly spread very rapidly over 

 some of the sandy soils, where it now forms extensive 

 sub-spontaneous woods. 



In Scotland Finns sylvestris exists as an apparently 

 endemic variety (var. scotica B. and H.) with short grey 

 needles. This tree at one time covered large areas in the 

 1 I.e. p. 109. 



'- The Origin of the British Flora, 1899, p. 100. 



