ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



CHAPTER I 



ENGLISH FORESTRY IX THE PAST 



THE exact period of time which has elapsed since the last 

 Glacial Period has been variously estimated by different 

 geologists, but is generally assumed to be something between 

 fifty thousand and a hundred thousand years. During that 

 period there is no evidence that the indigenous forest flora 

 of England has altered to any material extent, although 

 the distribution of certain species may have been affected by 

 physical changes and human agencies. The plant remains 

 found in peat bogs and buried forests afford conclusive evi- 

 dence of the species of trees and shrubs which flourished 

 when the boundaries of Great Britain extended farther than 

 they do at present. Submerged forests exist at intervals 

 along the entire coast-line from the Shetland Islands to 

 Land's End, and the trees and shrubs they contain are in a 

 perfect state of preservation. The Cromer Forest Bed, one 

 of the best preserved of our submerged forests, contains the 

 remains of forest trees and shrubs which are still indigenous, 

 and none that are not, unless it be the spruce. In the Fens 

 the Arctic birch is the only tree, in Post-Glacial deposits, 

 not indigenous, and in Sussex and Hampshire a few of these 

 deposits contain a species of maple not now found nearer 

 than France ; but these may simply be considered as 

 exceptions which prove the rule, and it may safely be 

 asserted that the indigenous forest flora is older than the 

 earliest trace of Neolithic man. What species existed when 



