NOTES FROM OAK AND BEECH FORESTS IN DENMARK. 24I 



22. Notes from Oak and Beech Forests in Denmark. 



{Wiih Plate.) 



By W. G. Smith, B.Sc, Ph.D., 

 Edinburgh and East of Scotland College of Agriculture. 



The following notes were taken in the summer of 1913, 

 during a series of excursions in Denmark under the guidance 

 of Professor Warming and other Danish botanists. One day 

 the leader was Dr P. E. Miiller, the veteran Danish forester, 

 one of the guests invited by the Royal Scottish Arboricultural 

 Society to visit forests in Scotland this year. These notes have 

 reference to a long series of investigations made by Dr Miiller, 

 and published in Danish periodicals, the earlier ones so long 

 ago as 1878, so that this short communication may also serve 

 to make members better acquainted with the work of one of 

 the ablest of European foresters. Some of the facts have already 

 appeared in the English edition of Professor Warming's 

 (Ecology of Plants (1909), but these are somewhat dispersed 

 throughout the book, and without direct observations in the 

 forests one missed their importance to forestry. Another short 

 statement is included in Descriptive Notes oti Denmark, a 

 pamphlet issued to members of the International Botanical 

 Association in 191 3. But we are most directly indebted to 

 the leaders of the excursion in Denmark for their demonstrations 

 on the spot, and in our own language. The notes also form an 

 addition to some observations — "The Vegetation of Woods," — 

 which appeared in this Journal in 1911. 



The points may be best presented by first giving notes on 

 woods seen, then we shall consider the wider questions raised in 

 the papers of Dr Miiller. 



Near Copenhagen an example of good beech forest was 

 visited (June 28), and it showed the following features : — The 

 beech was tall and clean on the stem, and regeneration by 

 young trees of all ages was in progress. The canopy was open 

 enough to allow of a ground-vegetation very characteristic of 

 the older, open, good beech forests. The plants included wood 

 anemone, wood sorrel {Oxalis), woodruff {Asperula), nightshade 

 (Ctrccra), oak fern, wood grasses (A/ilium and Afelica), etc. 

 A feature was that each of these plants formed large patches, 



