58 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



stone pine. The Weymouth pine came in in 1705, the 

 Corsican pine in 1759, the Douglas fir in 1827, and the 

 Austrian fir in 1835, the Menzies spruce in 1831, etc. 



Miller published his Gardener's Dictionary in 1737, and 

 in it we find mentioned the forest trees known at that time. 

 These included Pinus sativa (" the manured pine "), Pinus 

 sylvestris (" the pinaster or wild pine "), Pinus sylvestris 

 foliis brevibus glaucis (the Scotch fir), Pinus Americana foliis 

 prcelongis (the cluster pine), Pinus Americana ex uno foUiculis 

 (Lord Weymouth's pine), Abies taxifolia, the silver fir, the 

 cedar of Lebanon, larch, and others. The sweet chestnut 

 was said to have been " formerly in greater plenty amongst 

 us than at present, as may be proved by the old buildings at 

 London." 



The introduction of deciduous hardwoods, which may be 

 termed timber trees, took place on a much more limited scale, 

 and even at the present day, except black Italian poplar, 

 scarcely one can be called an ordinary English timber tree, 

 except those introduced in the earliest periods. The great 

 attention paid to introduced conifers was and is due chiefly 

 to their rapid growth and evergreen character, rather than to 

 any superiority of their timber over indigenous trees. Until 

 the nineteenth century the use of any introduced tree, except 

 larch and spruce in ordinary plantations, does not appear to 

 have been universaL This can easily be accounted for by 

 the comparative dearness of both their seed and seedlings, and 

 the great difiiculty of raising and transplanting them. Public 

 nurseries were few and far between, and facilities for transit 

 were neither numerous nor cheap. 



Beginning with our indigenous species in the first place, 

 a brief review of the comparative values of what, in our 

 opinion, are the species worth growing for profit at the 

 present day may be given, together with their behaviour 

 under sylvicultural and climatic conditions, and on different 

 soils and situations. 



