SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— K*. 409 



grown. This slow initial growth may be due to the combination of many factors, of 

 which the following are being investigated : — ■ 



1. Frost. 



2. Oak Mildeio. 



3. Effect of root competition of iveed growth. 



4. Lack of available mineral food salts in the soil. 



5. Insufficient competition between the oak plants. 



6. Race and type of plant. 



In addition to the above studies work is in progress in connection with : — 



Nursery practice of raising oak, control of oak mildew, manuring of seedbeds, 

 grading, &c. 



Direct sowing, including methods of soil preparation, dat« of sowing, density of 

 sowing and depth of sowing. 



Degree of weeding necessary in different herbage types, and 



Methods of mixing larch with oak. 



The provisional results obtained to date are discussed and lines for future work 

 indicated. 



Mr. W. L. Taylor. — The Afforestable Lands of Great Britain. 



For the purpose of definition, the term afforestable land has in this paper been 

 made to include those types of land which can suitably be devoted to the production 

 of timber, having regard to natural conditions and to the particular fact that, in so 

 populous a country, the forester cannot hope to obtain the permanent use of lands 

 capable of responding profitablj' to husbandry and of producing the relatively more 

 valuable food crops. The limitations imposed by natural conditions are, in the main, 

 those of meteorology, topography, geology and the prevailing vegetation, and the 

 inter-relations of the natural factors, one with another, render the character of lands 

 available for afforestation so varied as to make it impossible to deal with more than 

 principal types in any discussion of moderate length. 



The afforestable land of Britain lies chiefly in the west and north, overlvin» the 

 harder and less readily weathering rocks. The present utilisation is generally as poor 

 mountain pasture, grouse moor or deer forest. The most productive type is the 

 bracken or dry, grass-covered slopes, of moderate elevation and exposure, giving 

 indication of a deep soil, good aeration and good natural drainage. Other types are 

 the heather moors, with or without grasses and rushes ; wet, rushy ground and ' white 

 moors ' clothed for the most part with Molinia cceridea and other grasses. Scirpvs 

 and cotton grass moors are wet and difficult types. In all cases soil quality-class is 

 dependent upon the degree of elevation and exposure ; the quantity of moisture ; 

 the presence or absence of podsol conditions and pan and the porosity and composition 

 of the soil itself. Peat deposits, varying in character and depth, occur throughout 

 the parts of the country which are also the areas of high rainfall, and present many 

 problems, especially where the locality is one of indeterminate drainage or, as is more 

 often the case, is associated with an unfavourable vegetation and impermeable subsoil. 

 Faith is, however, becoming stronger where the flora includes Molinia and rushes, 

 for plantations of the spruces and certain others of the conifers can then, with the 

 aid of drainage, successfully be established on the deeper peats. In the mountainous 

 districts soils are frequently peaty, wet and sour, and, together with the morainic 

 deposits, sometimes concreted and alwa3's leached, in the depressions, form perhaps 

 the most difficult lands to assess and afforest. 



Elsewhere in Britain are to be found the considerable areas of scrub and devastated 

 woodlands ; the sandy heaths of East Anglia and the south of England ; the poorer 

 sands of the Trias in the counties of Nottingham, Stafford and Cheshire ; the chalk 

 downs of Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset, and the very similar soils of the Chiltern 

 Hills and their outliers and, lastly, the littoral dunes, examples of which are being 

 afforested on the Moray and Carmarthen coasts. 



Dr. J. BuRTT Davy. — A Preliminary Report on a recent Investigation of the 

 Forest Floras of Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Pemha and Zanzibar. 



After participating in the 1929 meeting of the British Association at Cape Town 

 and Johannesburg, the writer availed himself of the opportunity to carry out a long- 



