26o BRITISH FOREST TREES 



the spruce often during the fifteenth to the twentieth year, 

 and soon succeed in overtopping and suppressing them, 

 without assistance being possible in the way of thinning 

 out except at the cost of ultimate loss, or of deviation from 

 the principle that the treatment of the woodlands shall be 

 such as to yield the most remunerative returns. 



As standards in copse, maple and sycamore find, like the 

 ash, circumstances admirably suited to their development ; 

 and among the coppice they are to be found wherever the 

 shade of the standards does not weaken them in the struggle 

 with their neighbours for existence. 



In very many respects alike, so far as sylvicultural char- 

 acteristics and treatment are concerned, there is, however, 

 this marked difference between maple and sycamore, that the 

 former is more the tree of the low-lying tracts and the 

 gentle uplands, whilst the latter is distinctly a denizen of 

 the hilly tracts, and is in general more exacting as regards the 

 mineral strength of the soil. On sandy soils, only selected 

 patches of good quality are suitable for either species, but 

 the best development is usual on fresh, humose soil, 

 especially when containing some admixture of lime ; dry, 

 exposed situations, sour soils, or those exposed to frost or 

 inundation, and unprotected tracts along the sea-coast, are 

 not localities likely to show good, healthy, and remuner- 

 ative growth. 



Seed is produced almost annually, and is sown with the 

 wings attached ; the seed of the mapie should be gathered 

 in September, but that of the sycamore does not ripen until 

 October, and then remains some time hanging before it 

 falls. The seed can be gathered either by shaking down 

 on sheets, or by collecting the fallen fruits from off the 

 ground. Its germinative power is but of short duration, so 

 that it should usually be sown in autumn, when it comes up 

 early in the following spring ; though where the danger from 



