4.62 
Hleocharis multicaulis,—soon succeed, and com- 
municate solidity to the spot which they occupy. 
The roots of some of these rushes, particularly of 
the attenuated or almost hairy kinds, penetrate 
deeply into the stratum of mosses; and, along 
with the roots of the cotton-grasses, constitute 
the very durable substance which the manufac- 
turers of peat-fuel call ket. A yellow-flowering 
plant of the asphodel tribe, is also very frequent 
in wet moss; but it ceases to be distinguishable 
when any stratum which contains it has passed 
by decay into peat. A number of other marshy 
or aquatic pheenogamous plants are found in the 
strata of bogs, and have of course contributed to 
their formation; but some, though almost uni- 
formly present, are inconspicuous in aggregate 
bulk; and others, though occasionally making 
large contributions of substance, are not necessary 
concomitants of the true peat-forming vegetables. 
One of the latter class, Jwneus syuarrosus, may be 
viewed as a sort of representative of the others, 
particularly of marsh junci; and this, in conse- 
quence of its requiring a soil of a more solid con- 
sistence than mere moss, is found only in bogs 
to which age and a mixture of earthy matter 
have given some degree of solidity; and in bogs 
of this description, it is sometimes a large ingre- 
dient. 
But though bog is naturally based on such 
parts of the surface of the earth as are incapable 
of originally nourishing any higher tribes of 
plants than lichens and musci; it is also formed 
over all soils, however fertile, when their power 
of exerting fertility is obstructed. Any exten- 
sive stagnations of water, whether occasioned by 
the fall of woods, the choking up of streams, or 
any other cause of permanent or prolonged ope- 
ration, may originate bogs; and such stagnations 
have, in point of fact, given rise to far the largest 
proportion of the existing bogs which occupy 
hollow or low tracts of country in the several 
divisions of the United Kingdom. A writer in 
the Philosophical Transactions, says, “The Ro- 
mans under Ostorius, having slain many Britons, 
drove the rest into the forest of Hatfield in York- 
shire, which at that time overspread all the low 
country ; and the conqueror, taking advantage of 
a strong south-west wind, set fire to the pitch- 
trees, of which the forest was chiefly composed, 
and when the greater part of the trees were 
thus destroyed, the Roman soldiers and the 
captive Britons cut down the remainder, ex- 
cept a few large ones which were left growing 
as remembrancers of the destruction of the 
rest. These single trees did not long with- 
stand the action of the winds, but, falling into 
the rivers, intercepted their currents, and caused 
their waters to rise and flood the whole flat 
country; hence the origin of the mosses and 
moory bogs which were afterwards formed there.” 
A principal similar destruction of the portion of 
the great Caledonian forest which sheeted the 
upper and middle districts of the basin of the 
BOG. 
river Forth, is said to have occasioned the forma- 
tion of the great bogs along the course of that 
river; and this, when viewed in connexion with 
the process of alluvial formation which had there 
been going on for many ages, perfectly accounts for 
the character of these bogs, and for the uniformly 
rich land which les beneath them, and which 
is obtained for the purposes of culture by cutting 
them away. The formation of fens upon great 
expanses of shallow lake is precisely a kind of 
stagnation to occasion the growth of the musci, 
the eriophora, and the cyperacez; and can be 
very distinctly recognised as the origin of flow or 
fibrous bog in some of the flat districts of England. 
The levelling surge of some great flood or series 
of floods westward across the vast limestone plain 
of Ireland, and the subsequent choking up of its 
water-courses by the same excess of aquatic vege- 
tation which may still be partially witnessed 
along the course of the rivers Brosna, Suck, and 
Shannon, afford a summary explanation of all 
the great phenomena of the enormous tracts of 
bog aggregately called the Bog of Allen,—the 
latter fact accounting for the growth of the bogs, 
and the former for the flatness of their bed, and 
the general prevalence beneath it of limestone 
diluvium and calcareous clays. 
In all flats and hollows, which do not possess 
declivities or free channels for the speedy drain- 
age of surface water, a stratum of moss soon 
forms, rapidly accumulates, always retains much 
moisture among its fibres, and is often so soft as 
not to be able to support the tread of quadruped 
or man. Little channels are gradually worn 
athwart this soft substance by the slow but 
steady flow of the water of heavy rains; and 
when these deepen, they render the face of the | 
mossy expanse somewhat drier than before, and | 
occasion it to become a congenial soil for the 
growth of heaths. The heaths cannot grow on 
moss when it is distended by a great excess of 
water; but they find it eminently suited to their | 
habits when it becomes somewhat drained and 
consolidated, and in consequence speedily appear 
upon such portions of it as are comparatively 
cleared of water by any process of natural drain- 
ing. But in the very progress of their growth, 
they choke up the little channels, occasion a dif- 
fusion and stagnation of surface water, and event- 
ually though indirectly secure their own death. 
The musci now form a new stratum, to be in its 
turn intersected by little channels, overgrown by 
heaths, and buried in decay; and thus the bog 
rises higher and higher, in a process of cofistant 
augmentation, by alternate beds of such marsh 
plants as are altogether aqueous, and such as 
prefer a comparatively dry but purely vegetable 
soil. So distinctly and regularly are these alter- 
nate beds, in many instances, formed, that, if a 
perpendicular section of the upper or but par- 
tially decomposed portion of a bog be exposed for 
a year or two to the weather, a somewhat proxi- 
mate computation might easily be made ofits age. 
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