LANDSCAPE FORESTRY 231 



which are usually too poor and dry for most trees, while it 

 is equally at home on wet moorland. It thus affords an 

 opportunity of turning poor heathy ground, which is more 

 or less useless for profitable cultivation, into a picturesque 

 bit of forest scenery, and, when the most favourable spots are 

 planted up with a few ornamental conifers, or evergreen 

 shrubs of the American peat plant type, the formation of an 

 ornamental woodland is at once accomplished. 



Scots fir appears equally to advantage in thick clumps, 

 or when isolated and standing singly. It is a tree which is 

 well adapted for leaving entirely alone, if properly planted to 

 begin with, and is seldom improved by thinning or artificial 

 assistance. On heaths and poor ground it usually reproduces 

 itself freely if given the necessary space, and in such cases 

 it arranges itself in groups and small clumps and single trees, 

 which have a very picturesque effect when they have had 

 time to mature. In fact, trees which have lost their leaders, 

 or have grown into crooked stems early in life, often develop, 

 when isolated, a fine spreading head, the lower branches of 

 which take on that beautiful drooping habit which renders 

 this tree so much admired. Half a dozen such trees scattered 

 irregularly over an open spot in a thick wood, mixed with a 

 beech or two here and there, form some of the most pictur- 

 esque objects that can be found in woodland scenery, and, 

 with a carpet of heather or bracken below, an ideal landscape 

 is produced. This drooping habit of the branches, which old 

 Scots firs exhibit, and which has gained for such trees the 

 title of " bonnet " fir, has often been attributed to the weight 

 of snow on the branches. But in reality it is due to the 

 slowness of growth in the wood of the branches, which 

 renders the latter more slender and pliable, in relation to the 

 amount of spray they have to bear, as age increases. No 

 doubt, snow assists in giving the branch a certain droop, 

 especially at its junction with the main stem ; but, as this 

 type of Scots fir is almost as common in the south as in the 

 north, it is obvious that the effect of snow has been greatly 

 exaggerated. A special feature of the crowns of mature Scots 

 firs, and which distinguishes them from the majority of 

 conifers, is their round-headed character, in contrast to the 

 more pointed crowns of most conifers. This feature is one 



