CHAP, ii.] The British Sylva 41 



species of tree, (2) the nature of the soil and the situation, and 

 (3) the previous treatment that has been accorded to the crop. 

 In consequence of the competition for possession of the 

 soil, which takes place when different species of trees have 

 been intermixed either naturally or artificially, the law of 

 nature regarding the survival of the fittest has brought it to 

 pass that, wherever they have long had free scope to make 

 their special characteristics and influence felt, certain species 

 of trees usually predominate numerically over large tracts of 

 country. As has already been mentioned, the primeval woods 

 of Britain consisted mainly of Oak on the better soil, Beech 

 on limy and upland tracts, and Scots Pine on the higher hills 

 and on slopes having only inferior qualities of soil. If we 

 look at the continent of Europe, we find the Scots Pine the 

 chief tree over the bulk of the sandy stretches comprised 

 within the North German plain, and the Spruce asserting itself 

 throughout Scandinavia and north-western Russia and on the 

 humid mountainous tracts of central Europe, pre-eminently on 

 the Harz Mountains ; a covering of Beech clothes the lower 

 hills of central and north-western Germany, forming the Deister, 

 Soiling, and Thuringian forests ; the Silver Fir occupies similar 

 situations in south-western Germany and France, in the Black 

 Forest, and the Jura mountains ; whilst Austria has large tracts 

 wooded chiefly with Black Pine and Larch, and Russia can 

 show its well-defined areas on which Pines, Firs, Hornbeam, 

 Birch, Alder, and Aspen are the dominant species. Speaking 

 generally, the ruling species of trees throughout the forests 

 of central Europe, as they now exist, may be said to be Scots 

 Pine, Spruce, Silver Fir, and Beech in the first degree, followed 

 by other Pines, Larch, Oak, Alder, and Birch. These are 

 the species which form the bulk of the individuals in woodland 

 crops ; whilst Ash, Elm, Maple, Sycamore, Poplars, Willows, 

 and exotics like Weymouth Pine and Douglas Fir, are only to 

 be found in smaller numbers, or in situations specially suited 

 for their growth. It is, however, rarely that any of these species 



