748 
VEGETATION SURVEY OF NORFOLK. 
Woodland. 
There is a considerable area of woodland in the district, 
probably all of it planted, with the exception of a few alder 
copses and some naturally regenerated pine and birch. The 
prevailing type is that of the gravelly ridge dominated by Scots 
pine and pedunculate oak, and with an undergrowth of bracken 
and scrub. Some is of a very diversified character, including 
birch, black and white poplar, horse and sweet chestnuts, 
sycamore, alder, robinia, beech, hornbeam, lime, cherry, elm, 
maple, holly, spruce, silver fir, larch, Austrian pine, Weymouth 
pine, yew, Douglas fir, and a scrub of whitethorn, blackthorn, 
hazel, rhododendron, box, privet, holly, Portuguese laurel, 
common laurel, elder, snowberry, and bramble. Amongst the 
foreign conifers which have been grown experimentally, Corsican 
pine and Douglas fir have yielded good results, and in the newer 
plantations are being very freely used. As a source of timber, 
much of the woodland is in a neglected and unprofitable con- 
dition. The floor vegetation is controlled by overhead canopy, 
the close sward of the open ride giving place to brown tones of 
decaying leaves where the ground is heavily shaded, the carpet 
varying in density in the most subtle manner in response to 
variations in light and shade. On gravel, under pine and birch 
with open canopy, a Calluna-Erica community dominates the 
floor, Molinia and Erica tetralix coming in where soil-water 
approaches the surface. On slightly better soil, where Pteris 
displaces Galluna, oak is generally introduced. In the neigh- 
bourhood of Swannington, Felthorpe, and Horsford, Scots pine 
is the dominant tree, almost pure on some areas. This is the 
case north of Sandy Lane, Felthorpe (No. B 297), where under 
closed canopy there is no vegetation save fungus and scattered 
tufts of moss. Another good but restricted example of pure 
pine wood occurs at the south-west corner of the Wilderness, 
Stratton Strawless tNo. 26). The trees average fifty to sixty 
feet in height and two to six feet in girth, with clean boles six 
to eighteen feet apart. The floor is naked where the canopy is 
closed, a thin covering of Galluna, Molinia, and Hypnum 
Schreberi occupying the more open places. On Horsford 
