BRITISH FOREST TREES 



INTRODUCTION 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF FORESTS IN BRITAIN 



IN early times Continental Europe had a covering of tree 

 vegetation over the greater part of its area. Caesar described 

 the country between the Seine and the Rhine as being a 

 dense mass of woodlands ; in another place he stated that 

 the forests in Britain were practically the same, and com- 

 plained that the ancient Britons found shelter in the woods. 

 Scotland and Ireland had likewise their woodland covering, 

 principally Scots pine, over large areas since transformed 

 into open agricultural land, pasturage, and moorland. 



Of our now common forest trees it is most probable that 

 the species forming vast forests at the time of the Roman 

 invasion were comparatively limited in number. The 

 uplands of central and southern England, and all tracts 

 with limy or chalky soil, bore dense woods of beech, whilst 

 all the richer alluvial tracts with deeper soil were covered 

 with a stately growth of oak. The higher land and the hills 

 situated to the far north were mainly covered with Scots 

 pine, birch and mountain ash, whilst oaks, ash, Scots elm, 

 willows, aspen, alder and yew were confined generally to 

 the coombs, the valleys, and the low-lying localities ; beech 

 was not indigenous to Scotland. 



B 



