The Woods in Winter 



433 



nut, but in oaks and some other trees there are occasionally 

 not very dissimilar conditions produced. The smoothness of 

 the bark in most chestnuts, and the presence of faintly marked 

 lines or bands running vertically on the bole, may also help. 



The Beech may be known by its comparatively smooth bark, 

 often delicately marked by circular and horizontal ridges, by 

 the horizontal outgrowth of . its branches and the absence of 

 cracks in the bark, and of dead twigs. It forms ridges under 

 its branches, but they run straight downwards and are never 

 in the curves which the chestnut shows. A dead branch may 

 be surrounded by a collar and after a few years is embedded 

 in a navel. 



An Oak, whether young or old, is almost certain to show 

 dead twigs or branches. Beneath them there is no furrow as 

 a rule, and only occasionally any ridges. A circular bossy 

 collar around the base of the bough is a common condition 

 whether the bough be living or dead, and if the stump of a 

 dead bough remains, this collar may become very marked 

 and its enclosed umbilicus deep. 



In addition to the above we may note another condition 

 by which oak trees may usually be easily recognised. It is 

 the abundance of lichens and moss which grow upon them. 

 On chestnut there is little or no moss ; on ash, birch and 

 beech the moss rarely extends its patches higher up than a 

 foot or two from the base, and lichens are scarce and have 

 to be looked for. The reason that oaks are so rich in these 

 epiphytes is that they grow slowly and allow their outer 

 layers of bark to become old and dead. Now and then an 

 ash bole shows lichens in abundance, but very seldom any 

 moss. There are cases, it must be admitted, in which it is 

 almost impossible to tell an ash from an oak by its trunk 

 alone. The difference in growth of branches and twigs is 

 usually definite, and in many cases the ashes at this season 

 still bear tell-tales in the tufted foot-stalks of last year's keys. 



The observer is precluded from looking upwards and is 

 allowed to avail himself only of such data as the trunks of 



