90 THE FORESTS OF RUSSIA IN EUROPE 



spread in damp localities, forming areas of pure woods 

 remarkable for their straight boles and the consider- 

 able height of the trees. The lime ha 3 a wide distribu- 

 tion, outside the northern regions, over nearly the 

 whole of Russia in Europe and Western Siberia. It is 

 not often found pure, but rarely with oak, and usually 

 occurs as scattered trees in mixture with two or more 

 species. In the broad-leaved forests of Middle and 

 South Russia, the following species are found in mix- 

 tures : ash, maple, plane, pedunculate elm, common 

 elm, and willows, various osiers, aspen, and black 

 poplars in the lowlands near rivers. Of these the 

 black poplar grows with great rapidity and is becoming 

 of some importance. In the Caucasus there are a 

 large number of woody species, over three hundred 

 having been enumerated. In the west the box occurs 

 growing as a lower storey beneath broad-leaved species. 

 The wood fetches more than a rouble the pood (i 

 pood = '32 cwt.). In the forests of Turkestan the 

 walnut has a particular value. It produces knobs 

 and excrescences of large size which sell at as much 

 as 20 roubles the pood. 



The present development of the Russian forests may 

 be told in a few words. Strict protective measures 

 were inaugurated towards the end of the seventeenth 

 and commencement of the eighteenth centuries. In 

 order to safeguard the timber for the purposes of naval 

 construction, Peter the Great instituted restrictions on 

 fellings in privately owned forests in order to enhance 

 the value of the State-owned property of this nature. 

 The lines on which this policy proceeded were somewhat 

 similar to those instituted on private forest property 



