242 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



although in places they were more or less blended. The 

 absence of a mossy carpet was also a special characteristic. 

 This vegetation, as pointed out by Dr Miiller, is an indication 

 of "muld" or mild humus, and the soil when examined in the 

 hand was seen to be grey but humous and particularly free and 

 crumbly, so that when you squeezed it and then opened the hand 

 the soil fell apart freely, and did not stick together or adhere 

 to the hand. The same kind of soil was seen again last August 

 in North Yorkshire in a wood with well-grown beech and an 

 undergrowth not unlike the Danish forest. 



This ground-vegetation is not limited to beech forest, for in 

 a large oak wood in the south of Seeland (the island on which 

 Copenhagen stands) we noted (June 30) — oak {Quercus peduri- 

 culata), beech with numerous seedlings, elm ( Ulmus montana), 

 maple {Acer campestre), hazel, hawthorn, with a rich ground- 

 vegetation which included the plants given above, also dog's 

 mercury {Menurialis), primrose and oxlip, etc. 



Referring back to the woods near Copenhagen (June 28), 

 in the course of the day a type of inferior beech forest was 

 demonstrated. The trees were neither tall nor straight, and 

 many of them were branched low on the stem, or several stems 

 arose from one root. There was no sign of natural regenera- 

 tion, and the ground-vegetation consisted largely of species 

 recognised by P. E. Miiller as characteristic of beech or oak 

 forest on acid humus (see Warming's CEcology, p. 333), such as the 

 fine-leaved wavy hair grass [Atm flexiiosa), yellow cow-wheat 

 {Melampyruni) and winter-green {Trienialis), all common 

 enough in the woods of the Tay valley, Speyside, and Deeside. 

 The mossy carpet covering the ground was pointed out as 

 another indicator of raw humus. There was a marked 

 absence of anemone, woodruff and the broader-leaved wood 

 grasses. A somewhat similar condition of beech and oak 

 woods in East Jutland was seen two days before (June 26), with 

 a stronger representation of such plants as birch, rowan, 

 heather, blaeberry ( Vacciniiim), tormentil {Petentilla) and heath 

 bedstraw {Galium saxatile). The resemblance to many of our 

 own woods is evident. 



Some of Dr Miiller's experiments on the effect of lime in 

 improving these impoverished soils were seen in the woods 

 near Copenhagen. These soils are no longer profitable for 

 beech, and have to be planted with Scots pine and spruce. 



