ON THE PLANT REMAINS IN THE SCOTTISH PEAT MOSSES, (AWE 
side of fie small stream, crossing the moss from east to west, is covered chiefly with 
Sphagnum and Molinia. 
Hight borings were made across the centre of the moss from north to south, and five 
from east to west, and these showed that the floor of the moss was very level with a 
general dip to the SE. The total depth of the peat varied from about 6-8 feet near 
the edge of the moss to about 20 feet near the centre. Sections made on the eastern 
margin of the moss, near Palwbilly, showed the following series of strata :— 
1. Sphagnum peat mixed with some Scirpus cespitosus, . . 3-4 feet. 
2. Peat formed chiefly from Eriophorum, with traces of Sphagnum 
and Calluna, : : f ora 
3. Moss peat containing aauitiies of isle sp., and Poly- 
trichum Commune, L. 
. A layer of Betula alba mixed with leaves of the same tree. 
The wood is of all sizes up to 10 or 12 inches in diameter, 
and several stools were found with roots penetrating the 
i 
surrounding peat. 
5. Stiff blue stoneless clay, the first few inches containing fairly 
numerous pieces of small wood of Quercus, Alnus, and 
Pinus. This wood is apparently drifted, the bark in most 
cases being worn off and the ends rounded. 
Borings were taken down through the clay for 6 feet, but no change in character 
was observed at this depth. The wood fragments cease a few inches below the surface 
of the clay. This general sequence of beds was repeated in all the sections made from 
different places in the moss. Some of the sections laid bare large fragments of pine and 
oak wood lying at the base of the moss, but these all bore traces of long drifting. 
The clay on the banks of the river at the top of the moss contains many much larger 
fragments of these trees, all bearing signs of drifting, the only stools in situ being birch 
in the basal layers of the peat. 
Priestside Flow.—This moss lies on the Solway coast between Annan and Dumfries, 
the inland edge of the moss being 40 feet above Ordnance datum with the coastward 
margin 25 feet above O.D. The vegetation is of a much drier type than that covering 
the Moss of Cree; Calluna vulgaris being dominant, mixed with some Eriophorum 
vaginatum and E. angustifolium. Myrica Gale is absent, and there is but little 
Sphagnum. A series of borings showed the peat to have an average depth of about 14 
feet, with the same level floor gently sloping seaward as was found in the Moss of Cree. 
The first section was made on the inland side about 40 feet above Ordnance datum, 
and the following beds exposed :— 
1. Sphagnum peat containing Carex, sp., and Scirpus cespitosus, . 7 feet. 
2. Eriophorum peat, ; , ; . 4-6 in. 
3. Peat containing shrubby neni in aude 1 foot. 
4. Peat consisting chiefly of the remains of Phragmites communis, 5 feet. 
