CHAPTER VII 



FOREST FORMATIONS OF THE COLD TEMPERATE 



BELTS 



i. General Oecology of the Summer-Forest, i. Introduction. Tropophilous character 

 of the forest in the cold temperate belts. Coniferous and broad-leaved forests, ii. The 

 Broad-Leaved Summer-Forest. Comparison with the rain-forest. Luxuriant development 

 near sheets of water. Effects of light. Underwood. Lianes. Absence or rarity of higher 

 epiphytes. Optimum illumination of the shade-flora. Demands on light of Hepatica triloba 

 and other shade-plants. Structure of the trees. The arrangement of their branches ; their 

 foliage. Comparison of the trees with those of xerophilous tropical woodland. Structure 

 of the shrubs, iii. The Coniferous Forest. Illumination. Xerophilous structure of the 

 trees. Tropophilous mode of life. Evergreen broad-leaved trees. 2. Special 

 Illustrations, i. The Forests of North America. Differentiation of the North American 

 forest according to Sargent. The subpolar or northern forest belt. The Atlantic and Pacific 

 northern forest. The Pacific forests are coniferous. The Pacific Coast forest. Its northern 

 part. Forest of the Sierra Nevada. Sequoia gigantea. The Pacific Interior forest. 

 Stunted character. Atlantic forests. Province of Pinus Strobus. Its oecology and flora. 

 The broad-leaved summer-forest of the Mississippi and of the Atlantic plain. Forests of 

 North Carolina according to W. W. Ashe. ii. The Forests of Europe. Virgin forest in 

 Bohemia according to Goeppert. Forest on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. iii. 

 The Forests of Siberia and Eastern Asia. Comparison of the Siberian forest with that of 

 subpolar North America. Physiognomy of the Siberian forest according to Middendorff. 

 Eastern Asiatic forests in Kamchatka ; in Saghalin ; on the Amur. The summer-forest 

 of Japan according to Rein and Mayr. iv. The Forests of Tierra del Fuego. Their 

 character according to Dusen. 



i. GENERAL OECOLOGY OF THE SUMMER-FOREST. 



i. INTRODUCTION. 



In contrast to the forests of the warm temperate belts the forests 

 of the cold temperate belts have in the cold of winter a factor essen- 

 tially determining their oecology. Cold periods, like rainless ones, are 

 seasons during which water is not available to the vegetation ; whereas 

 the warm periods of the cold temperate belts, as opposed to those 

 of the greater part of the warm temperate ones, are characterized by 

 great humidity, especially when we take into consideration the 

 moderate temperature and the supply of water collected in the ground 

 during winter. The alternation of physiologically dry and moist 

 periods corresponds to an alternating xerophilous and hygrophilous 



