lO TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



classifies woods according to the trees present, but recent 

 workers on British woodlands go further and classify according 

 to dominant trees and the ground-vegetation. The advantage 

 claimed is that while the distribution of the dominant trees may 

 be interfered with by man, the ground-vegetation often does not 

 alter, and may be taken as an indicator of the character of the 

 natural wood before interference took place. One may even go 

 further and claim that the vegetation of a scrub or moor may 

 als ) indicate places formerly occupied by woods, and thus 

 assist in determining the productive capacity of any given area 

 in case of afforestation. 



Present Condition of British Woodlands. 



There is every reason to believe that in Britain there once 

 existed great tracts of natural forest which occupied definite 

 areas, and it would be of some advantage in afforestation if 

 these areas could be traced now. The process of destruction is 

 historically indicated. Where land was taken in for cultivation, 

 the enclosures were made first largely in the forest area; later by 

 draining areas of swamp, bog or fen, and to a limited extent by 

 the intaking of grassy or heathery moorland. But the influence 

 of man on the forest region had gone much further than the 

 ploughlands. Sheep and cattle are allowed to range over 

 tra ts never ploughed, and by continuous grazing effectually 

 check the growth of seedlings which naturally would have 

 replaced the aged trees, which were either felled or allowed to 

 decay. When it was also discovered that burning the moors 

 favoured both sheep and grouse, the moor fire became an active 

 agent in the destruction of seedling trees which might have 

 provided natural forest. 



What now remains of forest areas are mere scraps of woodland ; 

 some are merely ornamental, some are game-covers, a few are 

 treated for the production of timber, and a very few scraps have 

 been left in their primitive condition untouched by man or his 

 pursuits. At first sight, it appears almost hopeless to piece 

 together the scanty evidence relating to the grouping of British 

 woods. But the authors of the " Woodlands of England" have 

 treated this difficult problem with much success. They ask, " Have 

 not existing woods been so altered by planting and in other 

 ways that they no longer represent the native plant-communities, 



