56 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



ascends to 900 ft. above sea-level, southwards to the Sierra 

 Nevada and the Pyrenees, where it reaches an altitude of 

 5,400 ft. on the latter and 7,000 ft. on the former. No 

 other forest tree covers such extensive tracts as the Scots 

 pine. It covers more than 80 per cent, of the wooded area 

 on the great North German plain, and forms forests of 

 enormous extent in Russia. In Germany it is emphatically 

 a tree of the plain, and not of the mountain, or even of the 

 lower hills and uplands, as in Scotland. Towards the south 

 the tree is not characterised by that straight growth which 

 distinguishes it in its northern home. 



In ancient times it was one of the three principal forest 

 trees (oak, beech, pine) of Britain, occuping the hilly tracts 

 of northern England, Scotland, and Ireland. It is the only 

 species of the Abietinece indigenous to Great Britain and 

 Ireland. In the Scottish Highlands it attains an elevation 

 of 2,700 ft. but is then, however, merely a shrub and no 

 longer a forest tree. 



On account of its exceedingly moderate demands as to 

 soil and situation, its rich seed production, the cheapness of 

 its cultivation, its ability to yield a fair monetary return in 

 less time than most other forest trees, and the possibility of 

 planting up waste areas with better species when once the 

 soil has been improved by the Scots pine, its distribution 

 has been considerably extended by artificial means. 



Tree-form and Root-system are both to a greater extent 

 dependent on the soil and situation than in the case of 

 spruce or silver, fir. On the better classes of soil it attains 

 almost as straight growth as these, but always unfortunately 

 deviates more than they do from the cylindrical form of bole, 

 and in approaching more to the conical has diminished value 

 for technical purposes requiring large-sized squares. The 

 development of the crown is comparatively slight at all 

 stages of its growth, but on favourable soils the leaves or 



