CHAPTER VI 



NATIVE AND EUROPEAN TREES BEST FOR OUR ISLANDS 



If we have eyes for the highest beauty in tree-hfe, we 

 may find that after looking for it round the world and 

 having gone through all the books and pictures of 

 Californian and other, giant trees, we may have to seek 

 for it at home among the trees of Europe and Britain. 

 But we live in a time when the pursuit of things exotic 

 is so active that the value of native trees is often for- 

 gotten. We see in books of much show of learning, like 

 Brown's ' Forester ', trees named as being fit for forest 

 work in Britain which are not only of no proved value, 

 but even require a greenhouse to live in, hke the Norfolk 

 Island Pine. Catalogues, too, nourish the delusion that 

 we must look to other lands for all our good things, and 

 we see men planting many costly and useless trees who 

 never plant native trees. Wretched plantations these 

 costly exotic trees often make, as all may see who 

 watch them for a few years. While with the native tree 

 on a suitable soil there is no going back, with the 

 foreigner all is risk. 



It is not a matter of hardiness only; a tree may be as 

 hardy as the Spruce on the mountains of central Europe, 

 and yet do poorly in southern England. The native 

 tree is ready to respond to every impulse of the season, 

 is happy with our rainfall — often a slight one in some 

 districts — and, given the soil right for it, soon makes in 

 growth an end of all the pretensions of exotic rivals. 

 Soil and right situation every tree must have ; the rock 



