250 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



to which introduced species have acclimatised themselves 

 in our soil. The sweet chestnut grows freely in many woods 

 and plantations, though it is never found very far from where 

 man originally planted it. Limes are very seldom found 

 in outlying woods, and are trees of the park and garden. 

 The horse-chestnut is even more of an exotic ; it needs 

 good soil and protection from the coldest and roughest 

 winds, and usually makes a poor and stunted tree when 

 planted in exposed meadows or on shallow and rocky soil. 

 We saw earlier how the common elm abounds in the southern 

 half of England, but has never acclimatised itself in the 

 north. As we learn the lines of the trees in the bare winter 

 landscape, we realise the deep natural harmony between the 

 aspect and exposure of the land and the trees which people 

 it. The first glance at a field or hillside from a train window 

 will show what trees are to be expected in it, and the charac- 

 ter of their growth. Lean slopes of the grit-stones and coal 

 measures suggest ill-grown oaks and ashes or (in the south) 

 small spindly elms ; deep meadows and gradual hills set us 

 waiting for elms in full majesty above a homestead. White 

 knobs of limestone thrust through turf foretell spreading 

 sycamores by the farm-doors and close hillside pastures 

 sprinkled with dense and hoary whitethorns, which have ten 

 or twelve feet of dwarf stature, and the age of a forest-tree. 



