IT] WOODLAND ASSOCIATIONS 67 
limestone slopes and the more sheltered portions of the 
limestone plateau were covered by a primaeval ash forest, just 
as similar places on the sandstones and shales were once 
covered by forests of oak (Quercus sessiliflora) and birch (Betula 
pubescens). The numerous place-names including the word 
“ash” indicate that the dominance of the ash in the Peak 
District is of long standing. Of such names, one may mention 
Ashwood dale, Ashford dale, Money Ash (= many ash), and, on 
the edge of the plateau at the woodland limit, One Ash. 
On the Chalk rocks of the south and east of England, the 
ash is a very abundant and characteristic plant, though its 
dominance in woods is apparently confined to their south- 
western margin, where ash woods occasionally occur (cf. Moss, 
Rankin, and Tansley, 1910: 137). 
The recognition of the ash woods in England may fairly 
be claimed as a result of the method of vegetation survey, as 
their occurrence had apparently been quite overlooked both by 
foresters and botanists; and, as already stated, ash woods are 
undescribed for the continent of Europe. As Elwes (1908, iv: 
870) has stated that the ash is probably the only hardwood 
which, at the present time, it pays to cultivate, it is obviously 
a matter of economic importance to note the distribution of 
spontaneous ash woods. 
Although many of the ash woods have been interfered with, 
there can be no doubt that they represent the typical and 
natural vegetation of the calcareous hill slopes of northern and 
western England. Some of the ash woods show no signs of 
planting, and possess, in fact, all the attributes of a primitive 
plant association. The ash produces ripe seeds; and seedlings 
in all stages occur in abundance. The land agents and keepers 
of the ash woods assert that the ash is not planted, but that it 
springs up everywhere “like a weed.” Many of the slopes on 
which the ash woods occur are too rocky and precipitous to have 
ever been enclosed as farmland (figure 9); and even on the less 
rocky slopes where the woods have degenerated into scrub and 
grassland, the land is not always reclaimed, but often remains 
uncultivated. Further, the associated trees, shrubs, and ground 
species are such as botanists agree in regarding as members of 
the primitive flora of the country. It is legitimate and reason- 
able, therefore, to regard the ash woods as primitive. 
5—2 
