Studies of the Bark of Trees 



^83 



that it would be very useful to the classes we 

 mentioned to have a series of careful studies 

 of the bark of different trees to refer to. The 

 aid of photography can always secure the 

 materials for giving this, because there is no 

 difhculty in taking a view of the trunk of a 

 tree at any time, while to get a good view of 

 the foliage requires a day so still that proba- 

 bly a month of them is all that can be got in 

 the course of a year. 



We propose to give such a series in this 

 journal as opportunity offers. \Ve shall follow 

 no order and no specified time in doing so. 

 The reader must take them as we can get 

 them, but the index at the end of the year 

 will prevent any serious inconvenience being 

 felt from this want of arrangement. 



I. The Deodar Cedar (Cedrus Deodara). 



The bark of the young Deodar is wholly 

 different from that of the old. It is smooth 

 and glossy, while that of the old tree is rough 

 and wrinkled. 



The following is a careful sketch of the 

 trunks of two mature trees taken from a pho- 



tograph of a group of Deodars in the Nachar 

 forest on the Sutlej. 



The bark is close and finely granulated, 

 without any peeling off in scales like the pine, 

 or wrinkling in corrugations like the oak. It 

 will be observed, too, that for a short space 

 above the root its texture is finer and 

 smoother than further up. This is more 

 marked in the photograph from which the 

 woodcut is taken than in the cut itself, and 

 suggests the idea of this being grafted, and 

 that the lower part of the trunk is the stool 

 or stock growing differently from the upper 

 part or scion. This, however, cannot be, 

 for they are trees growing in a native forest 

 in the Himmalayahs, where, it is unnecessary 

 to say, grafting would not be thought of 

 Another suggestion is that it may be referable 

 to jungle or brushwood, which may have kept 

 the lower part of the bark less exposed. We 

 can trace it more or less in other Deodars 

 in the same photograph (not within the limits 

 of the woodcut), and we have seen some- 

 thing of the same sort in this country in stems 

 of old Cedars. It would seem, therefore, to 

 be of the nature of a character. 



ON PRUNING AND THINNING FOREST TREES. 



IN our last paper (on " Pnming Forest 

 Trees") we condemned the use of the knife. 

 We are now here to plead for that of the axe. 

 The usual phases through which the mind 

 of a lover of trees passes is first an invincible 

 repugnance to cut down anything. The 

 length of time which it has taken to grow is 

 ever present to his mind, and he hesitates, 

 and puts off and puts off, until iiTemediable 

 mischief is done before he can make up his 

 mind to what he considers the sacrifice. It 

 is only when experience has taught him the 

 necessity of this that he at length recognises 

 the good policy of sacrificing the interests of 

 the present to those of the future. 



We well remember the surprise with which 

 we (while still in the first phase of that 

 feehng to which we allude) listened to Mr 



Gambier Parry, when he explained to us 

 how for such reasons he had cut down the 

 finest tree on his estate. We have long since 

 recognised the justice of his views, and ad- 

 mired the strength of mind which could thus 

 gallantly deprive itself of present gratification 

 for the sake of future improvement. 



This is the principle on which all thinning 

 should be conducted, and it will be found as 

 productive of improvement in plantations as 

 the practice of self-denial — in other words, 

 the sacrifice of the present to the future — will 

 be found to ourselves in everything else. 



Now, applying this to the management of 

 plantations, we must look not to their present 

 state, but to what they will be in a year or two 

 — we must always look a-head. ^^'e know 

 that air and light are essential to the growth 



