1 82 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



can be utilised. Many of the trees in the Scot- 

 tish highlands are thus made use of, though 

 little indeed is done to improve the growth of 

 the trees or to make them yield a better class 

 of wood suitable for furniture, turnery, cart- 

 making, and the like. 



Birch is, on land of rather a wet than a 

 dry nature, very frequently found growing along 

 with the Aspen or Trembling Poplar (Populus 

 tremula), * whereof our fletchers make their 

 arrowes,' as Holinshed tells us ; and there is so 

 much that is common to both of them, as trees of 

 the woodlands, that they can most conveniently 

 be treated of together. They are both essenti- 

 ally light-demanding trees ; in fact, they make 

 greater demands on light than any other kinds 

 of broad-leaved trees. Like all such trees, they 

 have a deep root-system, though the direct 

 connection between deep roots and a very pro- 

 nounced demand for light, as in oak, larch, 

 and Scots pine, is not clear. By means of this 

 they are enabled to obtain a good supply of 

 water from deep down in the subsoil, even 

 when the surface of the ground may appear 

 dry. But birch and aspen possess, in the most 



