SESSILE- FRUITED OAK. 273 



terminating in a spreading heavy head, it is easily swayed 

 by the wind, and, from the formidable nature of its strong 

 unbending spray, is certain to do serious injury to every 

 tree that stands within its sweep. The beech, also, from 

 its wide- spreading head, is unfit to plant with the Oak, 

 added to which, its timber when young is of very trifling 

 value. 



Trees of a pyramidal growth are those best adapted to 

 plant with the Oak, as they do not interfere with the head 

 growth of this important tree ; it is therefore that the 

 larch, the Scotch and the spruce fir are so well suited to 

 act as nurses or secondaries to the Oak, their rapid growth 

 affording a kindly warmth and shelter, at the same time 

 that sufficient head room is allowed to the trees they are 

 meant to foster and protect. 



Of the deciduous or hard-wood trees best suited to mix 

 with the Oak, we consider the wild cherry or gean, the 

 sycamore, and the birch as holding the most prominent 

 station, the two first from their pyramidal form during the 

 first twenty or thirty years of their growth, their stiff 

 unbending spray, not easily moved or swayed by the wind ; 

 the birch, from its upright and fastigiate growth and its 

 very slender spray, which, though liable to be moved, 

 is of too delicate a texture to injure the more robust and 

 thicker shoots of the Oak. The sweet chesnut, also, and 

 the Cerris Oak may be profitably introduced in suitable 

 soils, as neither of these trees, from their habit, are likely 

 to be injurious to the Oak, and as their timber becomes 

 very valuable at the age of thirty or forty years they 

 are well calculated for secondaries or intermediate occu- 

 pants. The larch, however, in all districts where it will 

 grow is the tree we would recommend to be planted 

 in the largest proportion with the Oak, being, even as 



T 



