Distribution of Beechwoods on the Chcdk 163 



The grasslands, as developed in the smooth down 

 pastures^ have a more varied flora than, for instance, the 

 pastures of the mountain limestone, containing several 

 species, notably certain orchids, which are confined 

 in England to the south-east. Finally, the chalk scrub 

 also possesses some distinctive features. 



Beechwood association of the chalk (Fagetum 

 sylvaticsB calcareum) Plates XVI — XVIII. 



Natural beechwoods occur on the escarpments and 

 valley sides of the North and South Downs 

 ofbeech-^" fringing the Weald; they are sparsely 

 woods. represented towards the eastern limits of 



both escarpments, but attain to very fine 

 development at the western end of the Weald, especially 

 between Arundel and Selborne. A second important 

 beechwood area is that of the Chiltern Hills in Buck- 

 inghamshire and south Oxfordshire. From this centre 

 beechwoods extend in one direction across the Thames 

 valley, dying out in Wiltshire, and in the other, north- 

 eastward along the main chalk escarpment into Hertford- 

 shire and Cambridgeshire, where, however, they are very 

 sparsely developed, while they are apparently quite 

 absent from the chalk of Norfolk, Lincolnshire and 

 Yorkshire. A third distinct area is that of the oolitic 

 limestones of the Cotswolds. The western chalk escarp- 

 ment of Salisbury Plain and the Jurassic limestones in 

 the neighbourhood of Bath, which seem to offer suitable 

 situations, and might serve to connect the Cotswold and 

 Chiltern areas, are, however, apparently quite destitute 

 of natural beechwoods. 



"It seems likely that the beech is, speaking geo- 

 logically, a comparatively recent migrant into this country 

 from the Continent. Such a view is supported by its 

 sub-fossil occurrence in Denmark in the recent, but not 

 in the older peat. Whether the beech be a comparatively 



11—2 



