226 



FLORA AND SYLVA. 



underwood. In any subsequent cutting 

 of underwood the young trees should 

 be marked by washing them for 3 to 4 

 feet from base with a mixture of clay and 

 earth with a little of lime in it, which 

 will mark the trees so that no mistake 

 need arise as to their cutting, and also 

 help to keep off the rabbit, more like- 

 ly to attack if all the undergrowth is 

 cleared. n * * 



Pruning Oak Woods. — Not only is pruning un- 

 necessary — for, if thinning is done gradually, allow- [ 

 ing the Oak trees to draw each other up to such height 

 as may be required, the lower branches will of them- 

 selves dropoff — but it is injurious. This boughing 

 of the Oak trees affects the value of the timber when 

 felled, though the tree, when pruned, may be only 

 twenty or thirty years, and when cut, 1 50 years old. 

 When the boughs are thrown off by Nature, as they 

 are under careful management, the bark gradually 

 closes over the part from which the bough dropped 

 and it is then not easy to define its former position, 

 nor would any sign of it be found when the tree is 

 cut ; but should the tree be pruned, an unsound knot, 

 or a sore in the tree, is at once formed, allowing water 

 to penetrate the trunk where the limb was cut off. 

 This causes rot, and a dead piece of wood will be 

 found in the centre of the tree when it is cut. The 

 bark usually closes over the wound made ; but this 

 takes some years, and, before it is closed, the mischief 

 is often done ; and in old trees it frequently happens 

 that the closing over of the wound by young wood 

 causes a species of dry rotwithin. In the caseof Oaks 

 that have to be boughed owing to their overhanging 

 rides or drives, it is best to cut at 4 to 6 inches from 

 the main stem. — R. W. C. 



Trees as Soil Drainers. — Theamount of moisture 

 which a tree takes from the soil is greater than one 

 might suppose. The Eucalyptus in semi-tropical, 

 and the Willow in temperate climates, will frequently 

 turn swamps into firm ground by sucking up mois- 

 ture. This characteristic of trees extracting moisture 

 from the earth and pouring it forth into the atmo- 

 sphere partially explains why countries denuded of 

 trees are so liable to suffer from severe droughts. 

 Hence the wisdom of finding trees that suit wet 

 ground instead of taking the often futile course of 

 draining it. Among such trees,White Poplars, Nor- 

 way Spruce, Sitka Spruce, Hemlock Spruce, Alder, 

 and the White, Yellow, and Crack Willows may be 

 used. 



THE GREATER TREES OF THE 

 NORTHERN FOREST.— No. 7. 

 THE CHESTNUT (Castanea sa- 

 tivd) : WITH ENGRAVING OF 

 A GROUP AT BICTON. 



Among the noblest trees of the northern 

 forest for its beauty and dignity even in 

 our cold north, for use as food for various 

 peoples, and for its wood and value in 

 many ways. It is a tree of the sandy 

 and granitic hills of central and south- 

 ern Europe, the Caucasus, and North 

 Africa. It lives to a great age and of- 

 ten, even in our own country, reaches 

 great size and striking beauty, as on the 

 terrace at Shrubland and many other 

 places. It does best in free warm loams 

 or sandy soils, and, like most of the other 

 forest trees, it grows much straighter as 

 timber when close together than when 

 isolated as it is so often seen in our 

 country ; its effect is great, however, 

 in either case, and old single trees are 

 often beautiful. Its slighter wood is the 

 best of all for poles, fencing, and trellis- 

 work ; even young growths split up are 

 very enduring, and hence the common 

 use of the tree in France, especially about 

 old houses,for trellis- work against walls . 

 The mean and ugly modern way of wir- 

 ing a wall with galvanised wire is not 

 so good as the old fashion of trellising 

 with split Chestnut, often common as 

 underwood in the very places where the 

 wire is used. In forming a pergola its 

 use is a help ; if we make our pillars of 

 brick or Oak, and our main timbers of 

 Oak or Larch, the best wood to form 

 the smaller divisions (and this is most 

 important if the training of the plants is 



