noun
definition
A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline.
Examples of fen in a Sentence
It lies in the midst of the flat fen country.
The south-eastern portion of the province consists of high fen resting on diluvial sand.
The word was derived in antiquity from the town of Helos in Laconia, but is more probably connected with 'Aos, a fen, or with the root of AEiv, to capture.
The western division consists of low fen or clay soil and presents a monotonous expanse of rich meadow-land, carefully drained in regular lines of canals bordered by stunted willows, and dotted over with windmills, the sails of canal craft and the clumps of elm and poplar which surround each isolated farm-house.
It lies on a gentle eminence in the flat fen country, and the fine Perpendicular tower and spire of the church of St Mary are a landmark from far.
The natural division into dunes, geest grounds, and clay and low fen holds for South as well as for North Holland.
It lies in the flat fen country, on the river Nene (mainly on the east bank), II m.
It was separated from the sea by a belt of marsh and fen uniting Friesland and North Holland, the original coast-line being still indicated by the line of the Frisian Islands.
It will find sustenance equally on the driest of soils as on the fattest pastures; upland and fen, arable and moorland, are alike to it, provided only the ground be open enough.
The surface is generally flat (only a few sand-hills rising to any height) and is diversified by moor, fen, lakes and forest.
On the clay and low fen cattle-rearing and the making of the Gouda cheeses are the principal occupations.
It is best adapted for application to clays and fen lands and should not be practised on shallow light sands or gravelly soils, since the humus so necessary for the fertility of such areas is reduced too much and the soil rendered too porous and liable to suffer from drought.
It lies in a flat agricultural fen district, drained by numerous cuts, some of which are navigable.
The main feature of the northern plain is the so-called Luneburger Heide, a vast expanse of moor and fen, mainly covered with low brushwood (though here and there are oases of fine beech and oak woods) and intersected by shallow valleys, and extending almost due north from the city of Hanover to the southern arm of the Elbe at Harburg.
Southward, the Danube encircles a vast fen, tenanted only by waterfowl and herds of half-wild swine, while the plain which extends to the north-east and east only grows fertile at some distance inland.
Owing to the shrinkage of the soil in reclaimed lands, however, that is, lands which have been drained after fen or other reclamation, the sides of the polder are often higher than the middle, and it is necessary by means of small dams or sluices to make separate water-tight compartments (afpolderingen), each having its own unit of measurement.
Groningen communicates with the Lauwers Zee by the Reitdiep (1873-1876), while the canal to Winschoten and the Stadskanaal, or State canal (1877-1880), bring it into connexion with the flourishing fen colonies in the east of the province and in Drente.
These include various local lines such as the line AlkmaarHoorn (1898), Ede-Barneveld-Nykerk, Enschede-Ahaus in Germany (1902), Leeuwarden to Franeker, Harlingen and Dokkum, and the line Zwolle-Almelo (junction at Marienberg) Koevorden-StadskanalVeendam-Delfzyl, connecting all the fen countries on the eastern borders.
Horticulture and market-gardening are of a high order, and flourish especially on the low fen soil and geest grounds along the foot of the dunes in the provinces of North and South Holland.
The best are the dark blue from the Fen district of Cambridgeshire in England.
His early years were spent at Barnack in the Fen country and at Clovelly in North Devon.
This is only varied by the strip of fertile clay and grass-land which is found along the banks of the rivers, and by the areas of high fen in the southeastern corner and on the western borders near Assen.
The work is conducted on a regular system of fen colonization, the first operation being directed towards the drainage of the country.
Hoogeveen, situated between these two, owes its origin to the fen reclamation which was begun here in 1625 by Baron van Echten.
It is without doubt the Sterna of Turner, and in former days was abundant in many parts of the fen country,' to say nothing of other districts.
On its western side the plateau declines into the clay lands (and in the north-west low fen) which characterize the western half of the province.
Ramsey, however, was not completely insulated, like some of the monasteries of the Fen district.
West, north and north-east of this the province is flat and consists of sea-clay or sand and clay mixed, except where patches of low and high fen occur on the Frisian borders.
A large part of this has been reclaimed and the sandy soil laid bare, but on the Drente and Prussian borders areas of fen still remain.
A pamphlet on the cultivation of osiers in the Fen districts is issued in England by the Board of Agriculture.
These exist for the purpose of regulating drainage, and providing defence against water in fen lands or lands subject to floods from rivers or tidal waters.
It lies in the midst of the flat fen country, on the old course of the river Nene.
The Thames, bordered in early times by a great expanse of fen on either hand from Chelsea and Battersea downward, washed, at the point where the Abbey stands, one shore of a low island perhaps three-quarters of a mile in circumference, known as Thorney or Bramble islet.
To the north runs the great Forty-foot Drain, also called Vermuyden's, after the Dutch engineer whose name is associated with the fen drainage works of the middle of the 17th century.
The landscape consists for the most part of waste stretches of heath, occasionally slightly overlaid with high fen.
The soil consists almost entirely of sand and gravel, and is covered with bleak moorland, patches of wood, and fen.
Like Drente on the north and Gelderland on the south, Overysel consists of a sandy flat relieved by hillocks, and is covered with waste stretches of heath and patches of wood and high fen.
The origin of the three main divisions of Lincolnshire is anterior to that of the county itself, and the outcome of purely natural conditions, Lindsey being in Roman times practically an island bounded by the swamps of the Trent and the Witham on the west and south and on the east by the North Sea, while Kesteven and Holland were respectively the regions of forest and of fen.
It lies in the midst of the flat Fen country.
The main portion of Gelderland north of the Rhine and the Old Ysel forms as it were an extension of the province of Overysel, being composed of diluvial sand and gravel, covered with sombre heaths and patches of fen.
Eminent local antiquarians first drew attention to the exceptional prehistoric landscapes of the fen edge during the early twentieth century.
A county rarity, fen bedstraw, is also present.
The significance of Fen Drayton Nature Reserve for its wintering bittern is not recognized in the Environmental Statement.
The 1000m long boardwalk allows visitors to visit the Fen at any time of year.
However, the Fen Drayton List includes scarce chaser Libellula fulva.
The Fen folk are afraid of becoming further alienated; having seen their health care facilities systematically dismembered over the past three years.
Killough Bay and Strand Lough ASSI is coastal site with linked tidal lough, swamp, fen and wet meadows.
Behind these are areas of sedge dominated fen which can often be species rich.
However, elsewhere in Europe calcareous fen is the species ' most typical habitat.
The open waters hold a range of aquatic plant species, with emergent swamp around the margins, backed by a species- rich fen.