VoL. VI, PP. 127-148, PLS. 7, 8 JUNE 22, 1894 
GE 
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
THE BATTLE OF THE FOREST 
BY 
B. E. FERNOW 
(Presented before the Society December 15, 1893) 
The earth is a potential forest. Given time, freedom from 
geologic revolutions and from interference by» man, and tree- 
growth must finally dominate everywhere, with few excepted 
localities. 
Its perennial nature and its elevation in height above all other 
forms of vegetation, together with its remarkable recuperative 
powers, assure to the arborescent flora this final victory over its 
competitors. 
So impressed was Dr Asa Gray with the persistence of indi- 
vidual tree life that he questioned whether a tree need ever die: 
‘For the tree [unlike the animal] is gradually developed by the 
successive addition of new parts. It annually renews not only 
its buds and leaves, but its wood and its roots; everything, 
indeed, that is concerned in its life and growth. ‘Thus, like the 
fabled Aison, being restored from the decrepitude of age to the 
bloom of early youth, the most recent branchlets being placed 
by means of the latest layer of wood in favorable communica- 
tion with the newly formed roots.and these extending at a cor- 
responding rate into fresh soil, why has not the tree all the 
O77 
18—Nar. Goa. Maa., von. VI, 1894. (127) 
