296 ON THE SOILS AXD SUBSOILS 



and may be taken as representative for the others. In mountaiu 

 districts, as the Harz, it ascends to a good height on fresh, 

 strong mineral soil, but on gentle hilly slopes and on plains it 

 grows well on less strong varieties. Like the oak, it has a tap- 

 root, requiring a deep soil, not too binding. It at the same time 

 prefers, like the ash, a rather moist situation, although it does 

 not tln'ive in marshy districts. Lime, basalt, diabas, loam, and 

 the better kinds of sand, with a plentiful admixture of humus,, 

 are the soils best adapted for the elm. 



It is as little suited for pure forests as ash and maples, and, 

 like those trees, chiefly occurs mixed with beeches, and then 

 more frequently single than in groups. As standards in com- 

 position forests it finds a suitable place, where it soon acquires 

 such dimensions as secure high prices for its timber, which, like 

 that of Dcdhcrgia latifolia in India, is highly prized for the 

 manufacture of gun carriages. As underwood, on rich soil it 

 bears the shade of standards fairly, and also shoots well from the 

 stool. In mixed coppice the elm is extensively grown, although 

 the power of reproduction soon diminishes gradually ; while 

 this is in vigour it has a tendency to send out young shoots at 

 a great angle from the stem, which are apt to prevent the growtli 

 of the surrounding coppice. Along the banks of streams, and in 

 moist situations, elms are frequently pollarded for the production 

 of timber prized for cabinetmaking, &c., the knots in pollard 

 timber being due to numerous arrested adventitious buds. 



Soils lest adapted for Ash, lla/des, and Elms. — In beech forests, 

 the ash, maples, and elms are met with on the better varieties of 

 granite, of coarse structure and rich in orthoklas, especially on 

 the north side, in the bends made by the hills, where the soil is 

 always richer, moist, deeper, and containing more vegetable 

 mould. Quartzy granite of a fine structure decomposes slowly, 

 and is not suitable for these trees ; but where granite gradually 

 passes into syenite they are often well grown. On the mild 

 clay of the gneiss they are frequently met with, as in parts of 

 the Thuringer Wald, but they avoid the generally shallow mica- 

 slate ; where they in the latter case grow at all well, it may be 

 accepted that the mica-slate is giving place to the richer talc, or 

 to chlorite slates. 



On the various kinds of porphyry they sometimes thrive, 

 while at other times they do not occur at all. '\^^len the 

 porphyry is fine-grained, the soil is generally poor and extremely 

 shallow, so that scarcely any tree, however moderate may be its 

 claims on mineral strength, can thrive. Felsitporphyry and 

 micaporphyry approach more to the clayey kinds, and yield a 

 fresh, earthy, strong soil, on which ash, maples, and elms prosper 

 among beeches, as often seen throughout Thuringen and the 

 Harz. The mild, earthy, fertile kinds of clay porphyry ofter aa 



