THINNING OF WOODS 165 



In habit, the holm or holly oak resembles the olive tree of the 

 Mediterranean. It has a much thinner bark than that of our 

 native oak, and it is black not brown. The lower leaves sometimes 

 develop spines, which resemble those of the holly, hence its 

 name. Evergreen shrubs characteristic of woods are the Spurge 

 Laurel, the Ivy and the Privet, the last belonging to thickets, but 

 also very much planted in hedges. The spurge laurel has very 

 glossy leaves and thick black berries. The leaves of the privet 

 may persist until the new ones appear, hence it is sub-evergreen. 



THINNING OF WOODS 



Woods are often spoilt by injudicious thinning. The present 

 custom in many parts of these islands is to thin woods heavily, 

 much more so than is usual in Continental forests. In the 

 opinion of German experts, our trees are thinned too soon ; they 

 consider it better to plant trees close together, say 3 feet apart ; 

 then the lower branches, not getting much light, have a tendency 

 to come off without much difficulty, and thinning is thus effected 

 naturally. To overthin leads to the deterioration of the timber. 

 Within reasonable limits, thinning is advantageous. Supposing, 

 for instance, that beech and oak are being grown together, the 

 thinning of the oak trees would give the beech seedlings more room 

 to develop, and the underwood would be far thicker and a greater 

 quantity of brushwood would be obtained. The difficulty is to hit 

 the happy medium, and not to thin so much as to injure the timber. 

 The effect of thinning on the herbaceous undergrowth is very 

 marked. Where a part of a wood has been thinned, herbs spring up 

 rapidly, and the ground which may have been before but sparsely 

 covered soon becomes carpeted, owing to the greater light admitted. 



After a season or two, the herbaceous forms of woodland 

 vegetation will be followed by plants not specially characteristic 

 of woods ; shrubs, such as the blackberry and wild raspberry, 

 thistles and nettles, will gradually oust the more woodland plants. 

 These in their turn will be followed by the hawthorn and birch, 

 and if the ground is left undisturbed forest trees will in course of 

 time make their appearance. 



Something of this kind may be seen even at the fringe of 



