246 INTRODUCTION TO PLANT GEOGRAPHY [CHAP. 



world, as indicated in Fig. 65, which also suggests that a roughly 

 similar proportion is occupied by each of the other three main types 

 of landscape, namely, grassland (with savanna), desert or semi-desert, 

 and tundra (with fell-field, etc.). It has been estimated that South 

 America has about 44 per cent, of its land area forested, pAirope 

 about 31 per cent., North America about 27 per cent., Asia about 

 22 per cent., Africa about 11 per cent., Australia about 6 per cent, 

 (although New Guinea has 80 per cent.), while Antarctica has no 

 forests at all. In many countries the forests were formerly much 

 more widespread than they are today, the reduction being due 

 primarily to interference by Man, but in some of the more civilized 

 lands extensive reforestation is now being undertaken. This 

 planting is often of exotics introduced from distant regions of com- 

 parable climate, the plantations representing a kind of crop whose 

 range is thereby greatly extended. 



The characteristics of the main types of forest will be described 

 below in the appropriate chapters on vegetation. Here it will suffice 

 to mention a few of the more important timber trees which in most 

 instances are widely planted and tended (and to that extent, as well 

 as in their regular use by Man, qualify as crops). In North America 

 nowadays the Yellow Pines, Douglas Fir, Hemlocks, White Pine, 

 Cypress, and Spruces tend to be the most important softwoods, 

 with Oaks, Red Gum, Maples, Birches, and Poplars leading the 

 hardwoods, of which the area occupied and the annual ' cut ' are 

 much smaller than in the case of softwoods. 



In Europe, 74 per cent, of the forests are classed as coniferous, 

 and such forests, as in America and Asia, are particularly char- 

 acteristic of the northern portions. The principal European Conifers, 

 which are frequently grown in special plantations, are the Scots 

 Pine {Pinus sylvestris), Norway Spruce {Picea ahies), and Larch 

 [Larix decidua), though the American Douglas Fir and certain other 

 Pines are extensively planted. The most important European hard- 

 woods tend to be certain Oaks, but Beech [Fagiis syhaticd). Ash 

 {Fraxinus excelsior), and some Birches and Elms are also prominent. 

 The genera are thus much the same as in North America although 

 the native species are different, and this situation continues over 

 much of northern Asia. Here, in the west, European species are 

 found, but these tend to give way to Asiatic species of the same 

 genera farther east. Conifers comprise an estimated 42 per cent, 

 of the forest area of Asia, and temperate hardwoods 27 per cent., 

 the remainder being made up of tropical hardwoods which in many 



