248 
Oscar Drude. 
and Ilex. On the lowlying heaths, besides all the characteristic 
species of the western Luneburger Heide, there are dominant Erica 
Tetralix, much Myrica, Narthecium, masses of Hypericum Elodes, 
such as would be impossible in Germany, and, on drier sands, Erica 
cinerea and Ulex, giving the English stamp to the vegetation. And 
in the same region there are the Downs, calcareous hilly country 
from which one sees no heath, but only ash and beechwoods, with 
Sorbus Aria and Viburnum Lantana , while luxuriant lianes of 
Clematis Vitalba, Bryonia dioica and Tamus climb over the scrub, 
the thorny Cratcegus forms picturesque outlines on the bare hillsides, 
and Conyza, Senecio Jacobcea and Cirsium acaule, as in Germany, 
are characteristic herbs. But one seeks in vain for such species as 
Cynanchum Vincetoxicum, which in similar German vegetation would 
scarcely be absent: likewise for Anthericum or Peucedanum Cervaria 
in rubbly places. Thus in south-east England the mid-German hill 
plants make incomplete formations and the missing members are 
not replaced by others absent from Germany. 
On the other hand, on the heaths developed on detrital sands, 
with Erica cinerea we get Ulex europceus, in the south U. minor 
(nanus), and in the west U. Gallii, which often take the positions 
that would be occupied in mid-Germany by the “dry hill-flora” 1 
with a mixture of genuine steppe-plants. The hill-plants of England 
do not appear to be very exacting in regard to dryness, since for 
instance, Geranium sanguineum occurs in many stations on the 
limestone of the west coast of Ireland, mixed with Rubia peregrina. 
It is indeed commoner in the damper north and west than in the 
drier south-east. 
The North British Hills and Moors. 
This flora with its numerous resemblances to that of Central 
Europe goes far northwards on the limestone—we botanised 
among it in the valleys of the Rivers Wye and Derwent in north 
Derbyshire—and the scenery with its bare grassy hills (about 400 m. 
—1200 to 1400 English feet) and ashwoods on the damper valley 
slopes often resembles the equally bare dolomites of the Eifel, 
without assuming any strongly montane character. Helianthemum , 
Sanguisorba, Scabiosa, Geranium sanguineum , with forms of Rosa 
mollis, are the characteristic plants, while Sesleria ccerulea 
begins quite suddenly on the limestone further north (Yorkshire) 
beyond a barrier of siliceous rocks. 
1 cf. Drude, Hercynischer Florenbezirk (Vegetation d. Erde, 6). 
