156 SYLVICULTURAL NOTES ON 



but it can hardly be regarded as a forest tree. It is useful as 

 an ornamental tree along roads and rides, and sylviculturally 

 it may be useful as a nurse to tender trees in small planta- 

 tions, where larch and birch would grow too quickly and would 

 suppress the others. 



The English or Pedunculate Oak (Quercus pedunculate), 



A native of Great Britain and Europe, it is found to an ele- 

 vation of 1,500 feet in England. It requires warmth, and does 

 better on southern than northern aspects. It suffers from late 

 frost, but it comes into leaf so late that it usually escapes 

 damage. It is highly light-demanding and should have its 

 head free throughout life. It is very storm-firm. It requires 

 a deep, fresh, fertile soil to do really well, but it will grow on 

 stiff clays and also on moist, sandy soils, and limestones. It 

 produces seed heavily every three or four years, and also 

 throws up good coppice shoots, the stools living for many 

 rotations. Oak is not suitable for pure woods, but it may be 

 grown pure up to the fortieth year, when it should be under- 

 planted with beech. It can also be planted in groups sur- 

 rounded by other species, of which beech is the best ; in fact 

 first-class oak timber can hardly be produced without an ad- 

 mixture of beech. Oak of a very fair quality can be grown as 

 standards-over-coppice, though in this case the timber is short, 

 unless the standards are left in groups. It used to be largely 

 grown as coppice when bark was of more value than it is now. 

 It is a moderately fast grower and has a deep root-system. It 

 has a decided tendency to throw out large branches, so the 

 thinnings should be light in character till the fiftieth or sixtieth 

 year, and then they should gradually be made more heavy so 

 as to isolate the crowns. Oak matures at about 1 50 years. A 

 large number of insects live on this tree, but on the whole 

 damage is not serious. The oak-leaf-roller moth defoliates 

 whole woods, but the trees recover with the second flush of 

 leaves. Canker is caused by the fungus Nectria ditissima. 



