BRITISH FOREST TREES 157 



excelling in this respect nearly all the other broad-leaved 

 trees, although not attaining such straightness or length of 

 stem as the silver fir and spruce. In the pole-forest stage 

 of growth its crown is spindle-shaped, but afterwards becomes 

 first oval, and then obovate with advancing age. When 

 grown in close canopy, its foliage reaches down to about J 

 of the height of the tree, but in isolated positions it droops 

 down to the very ground. Its crown is formed of strong 

 branches, which ramify freely, and bear a dense crop of 

 large, broad leaves. On deep loamy soil the density of its 

 foliage is greater, and indeed the whole development of the 

 tree better, than on sandy soils, although on the latter, 

 especially on the better class of soil in which good mould is 

 plentiful, the greatest growth in length is often attained. 

 Towards the northern limit of its distribution a tendency to 

 develop branches at the cost of the bole becomes apparent. 



The root-system developed by the beech is somewhat 

 heart-shaped, like that of the silver fir, but is on the whole not 

 so deep ; it possesses a fair capacity for accommodating 

 itself to the conditions of the soil and subsoil, though not 

 to such an extent as, for example, the Scots pine. Its devel- 

 opment depends greatly on the nature of the soil, and is in 

 every way stronger on deep, rich limy or loamy soil than on 

 somewhat inferior land of a more sandy description. 



Requirements as to Soil and Situation. Raw, cold 

 exposures, where snow is often on the ground for months, 

 and the forests are bathed in mist for weeks at a time, are 

 more suitable for the spruce than the beech, which resembles 

 the silver fir somewhat closely in its antipathy to long-con- 

 tinued, severe winter cold, and its inability to stand a lower 

 average temperature in January than 20^ Fahr. On the 

 other hand, without absolutely demanding it, the beech can 

 bear a greater degree of mean summer warmth than the 

 silver fir, and an equable warmth maintained throughout a 



