224 FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 
The small number of species which enter to any important extent 
into the composition of the French forests is very remarkable. Thus 
it appears that oak, beech, and hornbeam occupy 60 per cent. of the 
tree-covered area, more than one-half of the remainder being taken 
up with six other species; but many other kinds are disseminated 
throughout the forests in various proportions according to circum- 
stances. As a matter of course, however, the trees are not grouped 
together in the above manner, and, neglecting blanks, the crop on 
the ground is actually constituted somewhat as follows :— 
Broad-leaved (oak or beech), . : ; . 15 per cent. 
Pure forests, aPeE : ny Lr . 
Coniferous (silver fir, pine, spruce, or larch), . 13 3 
—28 9 
Broad-leaved (oak, beech, and hornbeam), +) DZ 3 
: Broad-leaved and coniferous (beech and silver 
Mixed forests, ‘ 
fir, or oak and pine), : : : Tals x 
Coniferous (silver firand spruce), . - Sot gbee +5 
—i2 ” 
100 
Or, separating the broad-leaved and the coniferous forests from 
those which consist of a mixture of the two, we have 
Broad-leaved forests, pure and mixed, . : 67 per cent. 
Coniferous forests, do., j : 15 a 
Broad-leaved and coniferous forests, ? : 18 ss 
The State forests show a smaller proportion of pure crops than 
are found in those of the communes, but they also comprise a very 
much larger proportion of forests in which the crop consists of a 
mixture of broad-leaved and coniferous species. The first of these 
differences is due to the circumstance that a mixture, which is 
always desirable from cultural considerations, has been systematically 
maintained in the State forests from a remote period, whereas this 
has not always been the case in the communes. The second 
difference is chiefly accounted for by the fact that those parts of 
the State broad-leaved forests, where, from various causes, the soil 
has become much deteriorated, have frequently been planted up 
with conifers, which are the only kinds likely, on account of their 
capacity to grow on poor soil, to succeed under such conditions ; 
but these are, in such cases, only intended to act as nurses to 
broad-leaved species, which are subsequently to be raised under 
their shelter. But little work of this kind has yet been accom- 
plished in the communal forests from want of the needful funds. 
