BRITISH FOREST TREES 275 



the former, the hornbeam can still often yield satisfactory 

 results. Altogether, it is less exacting than the beech, both 

 as regards soil and soil-moisture. When grown as coppice, a 

 good layer of humus or mould is desirable, and at times 

 indispensable, particularly on soils that are inclined to be 

 stiff and dry. When, however, soil-moisture and a good 

 layer of humus fail, the want of these must be counter- 

 balanced by a good strong mineral composition of the soil 

 in order to achieve anything like good development and 

 vigorous growth. 



Although a hardy wood not suffering much from frost, 

 and content often with but a meagre degree of warmth, yet 

 the best results of its cultivation are obtained in localities 

 favoured with genial atmospheric temperature. Low-lying, 

 sheltered tracts, where during the heat of summer the air is 

 always damp and heavy with aqueous vapour, answer better 

 for the hornbeam than open, upland situations where the 

 comparatively free play of winds and breezes tends to 

 stimulate transpiration from the foliage, and to carry off by 

 evaporation any surplus moisture from atmosphere and soil. 

 As underwood, grown in coppice under standards, on hilly 

 land, it is often worked with short rotation, one of the most 

 advantageous crops. Its moderate demands on temperature, 

 combined with its preference for atmospheric humidity, of 

 themselves indicate that in hilly tracts the damper eastern 

 and northern exposures are best suited for its growth and 

 normal development. 



Requirements as to Light. At no period of its growth 

 does the hornbeam take rank among the light-demanding, or 

 even among the light-loving trees, but it is rather to be 

 ranged somewhere near beech and spruce as a shade-bearing 

 species. Not only during the earlier years of growth, but 

 later on in the more advanced stages of development, it can 

 * >car, without marked diminution of vital energy, a consider- 



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