276 HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 



roughly — the capacities of different formations for 

 the production of fruit and forest trees, and it may 

 be curious to note that, while the chalk and the 

 oolite freestones, both composed of carbonate of lime, 

 offer a remarkable agreement in point of dendrolo- 

 gical productions, the mountain limestone, also con- 

 sisting of carbonate of lime, affords very different 

 results ; here, no doubt, the different kinds of scenery 

 presented by the rocks themselves have a decided 

 influence on the general results. 



Much, however, of any geologial influence in the 

 growth of trees must depend upon the material 

 rather than upon the position of the rocks forming 

 the subsoil upon which they occur, and thus it may 

 be expected that clays, limestones, and sands, and 

 different mixtures of these, will each favour the 

 growth of a peculiar spontaneous or native vegeta- 

 tion ; so that, if we looked to a larger list of trees 

 and coupled it with lists of herbaceous plants, we 

 might make out even a stronger case, either for the 

 effects of geological or lithological conditions; but 

 enough has been said to point out that various trees 

 naturally affect one position more than another, and 

 so they succeed as the results of planting and cultiva- 

 tion in one kind of soil in preference to another, and 

 it may be laid down as a rule, that pomaceous fruits 

 and hard- wooded trees, as oak and elm, only flourish 

 in strong soils, though they may be imperfectly 

 grown in all soils, whilst soft-wooded trees, as beech, 

 lime, and the conifera?, succeed best in lighter soils ; 

 hence, then, the planter who would try to grow 

 vigorous oak on sandbecls would be disappointed, 

 and while beech is the " weed " of the Cotteswold 



