84 EDITORIAL NOTES. [Dec. 



The Struggle between Teees ix the Danish Forests. — Nature 

 calls attention to a remarkable article by M. Hansen-Blangsted, in 

 which is shown that in the heart of Jutland the beech rapidly 

 drives out the birch. Light is probably the cause of this superiority, 

 as hardly any young plants can grow under the beech except its 

 own shoots; and while the beech can flourish under the shade of 

 the birch, the latter dies immediately under the beech. In the 

 same way in the forests of Zeeland the fir forests are disappearing 

 before the beech. The struggle between the latter and the oak is 

 longer and more stubborn, for the branches and foliage of the oak 

 are thicker, and offer much resistance to the passage of light. The 

 oak, too, at length succumbs, because it cannot develop in the 

 shadow of the beech. In this order the forests of Denmark, the aspen 

 and birch, fir, holm, oak, and beech have successively predominated, 

 each giving place to the other. 



An Edinbuegh School of Hoeticultuee and Fokestry. — " Will 

 the workmen themselves not take the initial steps toward founding 

 this school ? " is the question put by Dr. C. Brown in our correspon- 

 dence column. Why not ? Mechanics Institutes were thus 

 started. And the same help of well-nigh gratuitous teaching by 

 scientific men, which was ready at the call of the horny hands of 

 labour in their aspirations after intellectual improvement, may now be 

 had for this specific object. Don't let correspondents trouble us 

 with questions as to the doings of this or that committee ; let them 

 only inform us that a definite number, say thirty, are read}' to 

 become students, and the school may be begun. 



This movement of Dr. Brown's is in one sense independent of that 

 lately inaugurated. It is right and necessary that a thoroughly- 

 equipped Chair of Forestry be added to tlie curriculum of the 

 X'^'niversit}'. But similar chairs of technical education already 

 founded, count but a sparse number of students on the surrounding 

 benches. Further, here, as in France, two separate organizations 

 appear necessary to meet the differing wants of the University 

 student and the .workman. The admirable opportunities for self-help 

 by manual labour at the various nurseries around the city, pre- 

 cludes tlie necessity of adopting the French methods with this aim. 

 Indeed, the only question which arises is. Where is the necessary 

 teaching to be found ? In the present transition state of tlie Watt 

 Institute, it appears best that a distinct teaching establishment be 

 organized, limited mainly to those specific brandies -which bear 

 on the closely-intertwined callings of the forester and gardener. 

 The Museum of Science and Art, the I5otanic Garden, and surround- 



