QUALITY OF WASTE LAND. 



115 



produces the grey moss. The species of grass I 

 mean, is very different from that known by the ap- 

 pellation of bent, which grows in the sand near the 

 sea-shore. The sort here alluded to is much narrow- 

 er in the leaf than the other, and grows in circular 

 knots or patches. This species of bent is scarcely 

 ever found by itself, but is generally intermixed 

 with heath and other plants. It denotes a stiff, 

 poor soil, inclined to wet ; and where it abounds, we 

 should scarce plant any thing but the alder, wild 

 willow, and spruce intermixed with a few birches. 

 Even these hardy sorts will be far from reaching 

 maturity in such a soil. 



Dry land, in which the heath is thick and healthy, 

 and contains no mixture either of the above men- 

 tioned grey moss or benty grass, is capable of pro- 

 ducing a good average crop of larch, birch, and Scots 

 firs : oaks likewise may be planted in it with success ; 

 but it is too poor for the ash, elm, beech, or plane. 

 If the heath be here and there intermixed with 

 the plant that bears what, in Scotland, is called 

 the hlae or blue berry, the English Bilberry, or with 

 thriving juniper bushes, the land may be deemed 

 still more favourable to the growth of the larch and 

 Scots fir, than when the heath, though healthy and 

 vigorous, occurs alone. 



