286 Italy. 
and of a few special places on which now and then even 
magnificent remnants of virgin forest may be found— 
lack of transportation having preserved them—most of 
the area is occupied by miserable brush forest, coppice or 
else open forest with scattered trees among a shrub 
undergrowth of thorns, hazel and chestnut (called 
macchia i. e., chapparal), so that most Italians have 
never seen a real forest. Nevertheless, Italy is by no 
means as treeless as this condition of forest would 
imply, for trees (poplar, ash, elm) are dotting the plains 
and slopes, planted for vine supports and boundaries, 
unshapely through pollarding and lopping the branches 
for firewood. Olive and chestnut groves on the hills (of 
the former 2 million acres, of the latter over 400,000 
acres planted for the fruit), and 8.5 million acres in 
vineyards add to the wooded appearance of the country 
and to the wood supply. The annual product of fire- 
wood from these planted trees is estimated at 6 million 
cords. 
On the sand dunes and near the seashore, especially in 
the marshes, the Maritime, the Aleppo pine, and the 
umbrella-shaped Pinus pinea, and picturesque Cypresses 
are sometimes found in small groves, while the calcare- 
ous hills in this region up to 1200 feet are studded with 
olives, cork and evergreen oak. Osier growing is here 
also quite extensively practiced. In the mountains, 
above the 2700 foot level, conifer forest, composed of 
Pinus silvestris and laricio, and Abies pectinata, has been 
reduced to less than 7 per cent. of the whole, mixed 
conifer and deciduous forest represents 4 per cent, the 
bulk being deciduous forest of oak (several species) and 
beech, with chestnut. Forty per cent. of this is in 
