176 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



larch plantations in Scotland, and forming the carpet of its forest 

 floor is a typical woodland flora. From this, then, it is argued 

 that the soil conditions here, of which this flora is more or less 

 the expression, are, and have been in the past, specially suited to 

 tree-growth. While actual observations for the other types of 

 ground flora were not made, it may be taken that they, having 

 fewer varieties of less exacting plants, indicate parts of the locality 

 where the soil is less favourable for tree-growth. 



Passing from this to the case of land entirely devoid of tree- 

 growth. Do the natural plant associations of this land form any 

 index to the quality of the locality, especially in regard to the soil 

 conditions ? In this connection it may with advantage be asked 

 how the agriculturalist assesses such land ? While such questions 

 as the head of stock the land carries, the death-rate, the percentage 

 of lambs, etc., etc, are to him all-important, does he not pay con- 

 siderable attention to the variety of natural plant associations, 

 their relative extent, and the positions and aspects which they 

 occupy ? Now, as the agriculturalist and forester have the 

 object in common of producing from the soil, it may not seem 

 strange for them to have, to some extent at least, a common 

 method of ascertaining its productive capacity. Our conclusions 

 would show that in primitive woodlands a certain type of ground 

 flora indicates a part of the locality specially adapted for tree- 

 growth or the reverse. So, on hill pasture, certain natural plant 

 associations (whicli in this class of land also would seem to 

 express more or less the soil conditions) may indicate portions 

 of the locality which are better or less suited to tree-growth than 

 others. While, admittedly, there is not yet sufficient known about 

 these associations to warrant any very definite conclusions being 

 drawn from them regarding the existing soil conditions, still 

 they would seem to deserve some consideration in, say, a general 

 afforestation survey of extensive tracts of land. Of course, it 

 must be borne in mind that whatever application this method 

 may have, it can only be used as auxiliary to the other method 

 of assessing completely the quality of the locality in which this 

 land lies, namely, according to the several factors of the locality.^ 

 " Urwald," however, as such, would seem to deserve some further 

 attention, and to have a certain potential value — other than that 

 already mentioned — in the afforestation of parts of this or of any 

 other area. In the first place, as mentioned by W. G. Smith in 

 ^ See Manual of Forestry^ by Sir William Schlich, K.C. I. E. , vol. ii. p. 48. 



