Conifers 
have already mentioned, oaks and other deciduous trees 
kill out the pines in good and fertile valleys. 
They do, however, manage to hold their own on 
poor and peaty land. Thus in the Hartz Mountains, 
the Scotch pine still. grows on chalk or poor granitic 
soil, whilst the richer Silurian and Carboniferous rocks 
have been won from it by the beech. Sandy stretches 
along the seashore are often pine barrens, as, for instance, 
along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. 
These peculiarities in distribution are quite simple if it 
is correct to suppose that the pine is a sort of forerunner 
or pioneer for the more advanced deciduous woodlands. 
In the Alps, and on all north temperate highlands, 
there is almost always a mountain forest of conifers. 
Our common Scotch pine ascends to 2743 metres (go0o 
feet) on the Caucasus, and its variety, montana, reaches 
at least 2695 metres (8850 feet) in Europe. Farther south 
one finds the Cedars of Lebanon and of Mount Atlas, 
and far away down in British Central Africa there is 
another conifer forest on Mount Mlanji, where Widd- 
ringtonia Whytei forms exceedingly fine trees at altitudes 
of 10,000 feet. It is, of course, unnecessary to mention 
all these coniferous forests, but the Deodar association 
on the Himalayas, and especially the beautiful woods of 
British Columbia, ought to be described. 
Those of British Columbia are full of magnificent 
giants, such as the Douglas fir, which is often 200 feet 
high (10 to 12 feet in diameter). Nor is this the only 
giant amongst them, as the following short list clearly 
shows :— 
Sitka Cypress (Chamecyparis nootkatensis), often 120 feet high, 
5 to 6 feet diameter. 
Sitka Spruce (100 to 200 feet high), 15 to 16 feet diameter. 
Red Cedar (Thuja plicata), often 200 feet high, 15 feet diameter. 
Mountain Hemlock (Tsuga Mertensiana), 70 to 1 50 feet high, 4 
to 5 feet diameter.® 
239 
