18 • MODERN FOREST ECONOMV. 



and in the localities where the soil is argilaceous, and 

 consequently humid, the trees reach a great height. Trees 

 are seen, above all, upon the heights which line the coast 

 from Balaklava as far as Aloupka ; from the side of 

 Alouchta they form vast forests between Babougine-Yaila 

 and Tehatir-Dagh. The pine of Taurida, which often 

 attains a height of 50 feet, climbs the most elevated 

 summits of Baghtcheh-Terai and of Tchoufout-Kaleh, 

 whose schistous declivities it adorns. The beech, which 

 -grows in the environs of Laspi as much, as a mfefcre in 

 diameter, composes the bulk of certain woods. 



' In Ukraine, the black earth called by the Russians 

 stepnoi-ezernozem, which constitutes the soil of a part of 

 South Russia, gives rise to forests of a special nature, and 

 of which the principal kinds are oaks, limes, and elms. 

 These trees grow with uncommon vigour, and are asso- 

 ciated with an immense number of large pear-trees of a 

 magnificent aspect. Nevertheless this beautiful forest 

 mantle is often etiolated under the pernicious action of 

 drought, which causes the destruction of thousands of 

 trees, and particularly hazels, ashes, and elms ; only the 

 species with deep roots escape its devastating influence. 



' The governments the richest in forests are those of 

 Archangel, Vologda, Viatki, Olonetz, Perm, Kostroma, 

 Novogorod, Minsk, and Vilna. They are each of them com- 

 posed of different kinds. In the government of Archangel 

 pines predominate, and lines of them ascend as far as 67 

 degrees of latitude. , In that of Kostroma reign vast 

 forests of limes. In the government of Toula this same 

 kind constitutes also woods of a peculiar physiognomy, on 

 account of the special forms which this tree invests itself 

 with in this country. Its top, instead of the thick rami- 

 fication which belongs to it in our climates, presents only 

 a very slight development with insignificant branches. 

 The oak also of these forests throws out only a small 

 number of branches, and its leaves, like those of all the 

 kinds in this government, have not that' thickness which 

 one admires in the forests of the East ; a phenomenon 

 which is partly owing to the constant dryness of the air. 



