On the Planting of Forest- Trees. 269 



tinguislies it from the Durmast oak, an inferior species, and is 

 important to be regarded in gathering the acorns for planting. 

 In a genial soil this tree has been known to attain the height of 

 more than 100 feet, and to produce upwards of 800 feet of timber. 

 It preserves its flourishing head and the soundness of its timber 

 to a greater age than most other trees, its great longevity justly 

 entitling it to the epithet "'monumental." The value of its bark 

 is well known; a tree with a large full head generally produces 

 5 cwt. to each ton of timber. It is needless to say anything of the 

 superior quality of its timber or the multifarious uses to which it 

 is applied. 



The oak growls spontaneously in almost all soils abounding in 

 clay, and therefore is plentifully found in the London, Plastic, 

 Wealden (as may be seen in Kent and Sussex), and Oxford clays; 

 in all the valleys which descend through the oolitic system, 

 which abounds in subordinate beds of clay and marl ; in the lias 

 beds, and in the aluminous portion of the new red-sandstone, the 

 shales of the coal-measures, the clays of the old red-sandstone^ 

 and in the detritus of the valleys of the grauwacke slate ; but it 

 attains its greatest dimensions upon deep strong diluvial soils, 

 which consist chiefly of clay and gravel. In very cold and wet 

 land, such as the four first strata often present, it is of stunted 

 growth, and does not arrive at any great size. At considerable 

 elevations and in exposed situations it does not thrive well, but 

 becomes tortuous and knarly. 



The Turkey oak (Quercus cerris) is a beautiful tree^ and not 

 undeserving the attention of the profitable planter, as it grows 

 rapidly with a clean stem ; it flowers in May; its fruit is small, 

 and the cup rough and prickly. The land'^ most favourable to the 

 common oak is also suitable to this. 



The seed of both the above may either be planted in the fall, 

 or preserved in sand till the ensuing spring, and planted in 

 February and March ; the latter is the preferable method. 



The Spanish chesnut (Fagus castaneci). This noble tree is 

 common to all the south of Europe, and was introduced so early 

 in England as to have given rise to the supposition that it is indi- 

 genous : it flowers in June. Too much cannot be said in praise 

 of its iDreauiy and magnificence, and its timber is next in value to 

 the oak; it grows to a very large size, and lives to a great age, 

 one of the oldest trees in England being of this kind ; it stands 

 in Lord Ducie's park, in Gloucestershire, where, there is reason 

 to believe, it was growing at the time of the Conquest. This 

 tree grows freely in healthy gravels and other diluvial soils, as 



* The Turkey oak is said also to thrive and grow rapidly on land which 

 is too light for the common oak. It forms many of the forests of Italy. 

 The fine oaks round the Lake of Bolsena are of this variety. — Ph. Pusey. ■. 



