Conifers 



climates it is exceedingly difficult to find any natural 

 pine forest. If only a few more proprietors had 

 followed the noble example set by Prince Ad. von 

 Schwarzenburg, who left a will ordering that ^'3200 

 yoke should be preserved for ever," so that the original 

 Forest of Bohemia could be understood by succeeding 

 generations ! The forest which we owe to his self- 

 denying ordinance consists of firs, silver firs, and beeches, 

 as well as of sycamore, elm, alder, birches, and willows. 

 Here may be the huge mouldering trunks of dead 

 giants, from whose prostrate stems spring rows of little 

 shoots, patiently waiting for a chance to develop. The 

 soil is everywhere covered over with green feathery 

 mosses, in which are growing hundreds of little sup- 

 pressed youngsters (some perhaps 120 to 160 years 

 old, though not more than 7 inches in diameter). 

 When some venerable patriarch does eventually fall, 

 then these small ones get their chance and quickly 

 grow up towards the light, for which they have been so 

 long patiently waiting. 



In those Highland woods which have been in exist- 

 ence for at least a century, one can realise up to a cer- 

 tain point the extraordinary charm of a natural forest. 

 The great trees are covered with rare and curious 

 lichens. The ground is broken, rocky, and uneven, but 

 over it all, over boulders and dead trunks, there is 

 thrown a most wonderful tapestry of feathery mosses, 

 with here and there blaeberries, Trientalis, Veronica 

 officinalis, dwarf cornel, brambles, and bracken, with 

 splendid male ferns and lady ferns. The bewildering 

 variety of this ground flora clearly depends upon the 

 amount of light which penetrates through the branches. 



But the influences at work are of the most compli- 

 cated character. The trees are all competing for light ; 

 should a leading shoot be broken as by a playful 



243 



