Abstract
WHILE recently visiting the famous caves at Cheddar I noticed small patches of mosslike vegetation growing near the electric lamps used to illuminate the caves. The caves extend a long way into the hillside, and, as the entrances are but small, daylight penetrates into them to a very short distance only. They are lighted by wire filament electric lamps, of which some are hung from the roof, but many are laid upon their sides in the deep natural recesses, and, in order better to illuminate the formation and bring up the beautiful colouring and folding of the stalactites, are provided with reflectors. It was close against some of these lamps that I noticed the patches of vegetation, and they looked so strange that I asked the attendant if they had been placed there as an experiment. His answer was that they had not, and that he himself had noticed them growing near the lamps.
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PENDRED, L. Plant-life in Cheddar Caves. Nature 105, 709 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/105709a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/105709a0
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