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THE planter's GUIDE. 



with many of the most emment in the line, within the 

 last few years, I have found them, one and all, un- 

 acquainted with its existence ! Neither do om' best writers 

 on woods, nor our most experienced planters, appear to 

 have paid much attention to it. In a writer like Mr 

 Pontey, who copies so little from others, and speaks 

 chiefly from his own practice as a planter, we might have 

 expected to find some hint of the singular properties of 

 the plant, had it attracted much notice in England.'" 



It may appear somewhat sing-ular, on examining two 

 different species of the same tree known as indigenous to 

 Britain, to find the one so much scarcer than the other ; 

 especially when the wood of the scarcer sort happens to 

 be the superior in point of quality ; and above all, when 

 it is better fitted for the highest of all British purposes, 

 naval architecture. That it is owing to accident we can- 

 not believe ; and since the improvement of our woods 

 (which should be universally interesting) is in question, a 

 little inquiry into the fact and its causes may not be con- 

 sidered as out of place in the present discussion. 



In ancient times, when extensive forests covered a great 

 part of our island, which, as we learn from Greek and 

 Roman writers, consisted chiefly of Oak, Birch, and Scotch 

 Fir, {Pinus silvestris) there is no room to doubt but that 

 the spreading Oak abounded, as the ancient, hardy, and 

 aboriginal tenant of the soil. Indeed, from the specimens 

 dug up in the south, as well as the north, from under the 

 Roman roads, and consequently of an age prior to their 

 construction, there is every reason for confirming that 

 opinion. In after times, as civihsation advanced, and the 

 plough came to narrow the limits of the forest, the native 

 woods gradually receded to the banks of rivers, and other 



* Note YI. 



