INTRODUCTION 5 
stood without the foregoing knowledge of structure. 
Following what has been said concerning the normal 
structure and life-processes of the tree, we may turn to 
the investigation of its cultivation and the diseases 
which attack it, concluding with a necessarily brief 
chapter on the systematic position of the British oak 
and its immediate allies, and some remarks on its geo- 
graphical distribution at the present time. 
Of course, many points which will turn up in the 
course of the exposition will have to be shortly dealt 
with, as the object of the book is to touch things with 
a light hand ; but it is hoped that, this notwithstanding, 
the reader may obtain a useful glimpse into the domain 
of modern botanical science and the problems with which 
forest botany is concerned, and with which every properly 
trained forester ought to be thoroughly acquainted. 
The oak, as is well known, is a slow-growing, di- 
cotyledonous tree of peculiar spreading habit, and very 
intolerant of shade (Plate I.). It may reach a great age 
—certainly a thousand years—and still remain sound 
and capable of putting forth leafy shoots. 
The root-system consists normally of a deep principal 
or tap root and spreading lateral roots, which become 
very thick and woody and retain a remarkably strong 
hold on the soil when the latter is a suitable deep, 
tenacious loam with rocks in it. They are intolerant of 
anything like stagnant water, however, and will succeed 
better in sandy loam and more open soils than in richer 
ones improperly drained, 
