STATE AND OTHER FORESTS OF FRANCE. 75 



is undulating rather than abrupt, and the slopes are not steep 

 except in the southern part, where occasionally they attain 30 per 

 cent. Elsewhere, the declivities are very gentle, and the soil 

 parts but slowly with water from rain and snow. 



Geology and Forest Soil. 



The Forest of Champenoux lies partly on Lias marls and 

 limestones, partly on modern alluvium. 



The subsoil is clayey and stiff, but sometimes calcareous ; 

 the vegetable soil varies in thickness, is generally somewhat 

 deep, and forms two series of soil, one, the most common, 

 known locally by the name of white soil, being composed of 

 an intimate mixture of clay and silicious sand. It is light 

 and perfectly suited to forest growth, particularly of the oak. 

 The other is clay. Both are deep and wet, here and there 

 excessively so. 



Crops. 



The principal species is the oak (sessile and pedunculate), 

 which forms the greater part of the standards, and more 

 than half the crop. This tree grows well at Champenoux, 

 where it finds the soil particularly well adapted to its require- 

 ments, and attains large size. Seed-years are, unfortunately, not 

 frequent, but they are sufficiently so to form a high forest 

 crop. After the oak, in order of importance, come the horn- 

 beam, the beech, and softwoods. The hornbeam forms almost 

 everywhere the main portion of the crops. In young crops it is 

 invasive, and it is necessary to make frequent cleanings in order 

 to prevent the coppice-shoots from killing all the oak seedlings 



As in the case of all forests under conversion for a long time 

 past, the crops have very different appearances. One meets with 

 coppice-with-standards ; old poles on stools, sometimes dense 

 and flourishing, sometimes open and approaching the condition 

 for regeneration ; and thickets of saplings and seedlings, which 

 will form future crops of high forest. 



In 1900, the Forest Department established, in the Forest of 

 Champenoux, an Arboretum, which occupies an area of about 

 25 acres, in two plots. The number of exotic species which have 

 been introduced there up to the present time is about two 



