2 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTUEE. 



Vegetable mould is that portion of the topsoil which 

 is formed by the more or less decomposed debris of 

 organised matter. 



The term species is defined as a group of indivi- 

 duals which resemble one another and their parents, 

 and produce new individuals resembling them in all 

 essential characters. 



A tree is a woody plant with a single .stem, leafless 

 below, and capable of attaining a height of at least 

 20ft. 



The words shrub and bush are used to designate 

 woody plants that do not attain this height, and 

 whose stem is branched from the base itself. 



A seedling is a plant produced directly from the 

 germination of a seed ; a shoot springs up on a 

 stool after the stem has been cut down ; a sucker is 

 a plant that takes its origin from somewhere along 

 the course of a root. 



Plants or trees standing together, whatever be 

 their origin, are collectively called a crop ; this term, 

 however, is generally restricted to a collection of 

 seedlings, and is not used for a collection of shoots or 

 suckers, which is more specially termed aftergrowth. 



The shoots standing together on the same stool 

 receive the collective name of clump, and by cutting 

 back is understood the operation of cutting down 

 young steins close to the ground in order to make 

 them shoot up from the stool. 



A rotation is the number of years determined upon 

 for the successive regeneration of an entire forest. 



When the rotation is long, it is divided into 

 parts generally equal, called periods. 



