44 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTURE. 



CHAPTER II. 



APPLICATION OF THE METHOD TO THE 

 PRINCIPAL FOREST TREES. 



I. TREATMENT OF HIGH OAK FOREST. 



HABITAT. When the oak is mentioned without 

 further specification it always means either the 

 British Oak (Q. pedunculata) , or the Sessile-flowered 

 Oak (Q. sessiliflora). These two trees inhabit 

 mild and temperate climates, the former advancing 

 further north, the other more towards the south, but 

 their habitat is chiefly determined by the amount of 

 moisture in the soil. Thus the former prefers very 

 moist and even damp soils, containing a rather strong 

 proportion of clay, the latter, free soils that are 

 merely moist. The former is chiefly found in plains ; 

 the latter, though also found in plains, prefers hilly 

 or low mountainous ground. 



PECULIARITES OF GROWTH. The seed of these two 

 oaks is heavy, the cover light, and the young plant 

 hardy, though it cannot stand spring frosts. Their 

 roots take a vertical direction downwards and the 

 taproot is very long in the early life of the plant. 

 They do not produce suckers, but they throw np 

 shoots from the stool up to an advanced age. Their 

 growth, somewhat slow at the beginning, becomes 

 rapid in good soil and the' more the crown is de- 

 veloped, the greater density does the timber acquire. 

 When an individual tree is isolated, or at some 



