CHAPTER IV 



ON FORESTS 



The forests of the Coal Age— Monkey-puzzle and ginkgo— Wood, its uses, 

 colour, and smell— Lasting properties of wood— Jarrah and deodar— 

 Teak— Uses of birch — Norwegian barques — Destruction of wood in 

 America— Paper from wood pulp— Forest fires— Arid lands once fertile 

 — Britain to be again covered by forests — Vanished country homes- 

 Ashes at farmhouses— Yews in churchyards— History of Man versus 

 Woods in Britain. 



WHAT was the first tree like ? That is a very diffi- 

 cult question to answer. Perhaps the first forests 

 were those of the great coal period, of which the 

 remains, buried for untold ages in the earth, became the 

 coal which we now burn. 



The flames and red-glowing heat of a fire are the work of 

 the sunlight which fell in these long-past ages through a 

 steamy, misty atmosphere, upon these weird, grotesque 

 vegetables, unlike anything which now exists upon the earth. 

 Their nearest allies amongst living plants are the little club- 

 mosses which creep over the peat and through the heather 

 in alpine districts. 



Of course no one can say exactly what these coal forests 

 were like. But although some modern authorities have 

 questioned the general accuracy of the descriptions of Heer 

 and others, yet, as they have not given anything better in 

 the way of description, we shall endeavour to describe them 



55 



