BRITISH FOREST TREES 155 



seedlings in the nurseries is done at 6" x 4" if the young 

 transplants are wanted in the next year ; one or two-year- 

 old seedlings are pricked out at 12" x 12" or 15'' x 10", if 

 they are to stand two years and develop into plants about 

 4' high, and no injury is done if the tap-root is slightly 

 shortened. No attempt should be made to prick out any 

 seedlings which appear bent or of indifferent growth. When 

 transplants are wanted for planting out in copse, or on 

 grazing-land, a larger growing-space is of course necessary. 



Deciduous broad-leaved Trees. 

 A. Hardwoods, i. BEECH (FAGUS SYLVATICA, L.). 



Writing in 1791, Gilpin a said of the beech : 



"The oak, the ash, and the elm, are commonly dignified in our 



English woods, as a distinct class, by the title of timber trees 



After timber trees, the beech deserves our notice. Some indeed rank 

 the beech among timber trees ; but, I believe, in general it does not 

 find that respect, as its wood is of a soft spongy nature ; sappy and 

 alluring to the worm." 



Professor Gayer of Munich, the greatest living authority 

 on Sylviculture, is of a different opinion. He says : 



"There are many localities in which beech will continue to be a 

 valuable wood from a financial point of view " (i.e. for fuel in 

 Germany), "but, where such may not be the case, it will still retain 

 its insurpassable sylvicultural value, for without the beech there can 

 no more be properly tended forests of broad-leaved species, as along 

 with it would have to be given up a good many other valuable timber 

 trees, whose production is only possible with the aid of beech." 

 Waldbau, 1889, p. 448. 



Distribution. The beech is found throughout the western, 

 the central, and most of the southern portion of Europe, 

 also in the Caucasus, and in northern Persia. Its north- 

 1 Forest Scenery, Lauder's Edition. iSjjj, pp. "7 



