The Woodlands of England. 115 
hand, there are, of course, many plantations pure and simple which 
have been made on moorland, heath, grassland, or arable land, and 
which may of course consist of native or of exotic trees or of a 
mixture of the two. But between these two extremes, according to 
the conclusions of all the members of the British Vegetation 
Committee who have given any special attention to this subject, 
come the great majority of the British woods ; which are neither 
virgin forest, nor plantations de novo , but are the lineal descendants, 
so to speak, of primitive woods. Such semi-natural woods, though 
often more or less planted, retain the essential features of natural 
woods as opposed to plantations, and without any reasonable doubt 
are characterised by many of the species which inhabited them in 
their original or virgin condition. 1 
We may, in fact, construct a series leading from the one extreme 
of virgin forest to the other extreme of artificial plantation on open 
ground. Thus we may distinguish the following types :— 
(1) . Primitive woodland which rejuvenates itself naturally, 
from self-sown seed or vegetatively, and in which felling has been, 
at the most, quite occasional and sporadic, and confined to isolated 
trees. Here we may place with confidence some of the woods of 
Quercus sessilifom and of ash, which occur on the Pennines and 
in the Lake District. 
(2) . Native woods in which there has been little or no planting^ 
but in which fairly regular felling takes place, the woods rejuvenating 
themselves naturally from self-sown seed, or in the case of the oak, 
partly from the stools. Here we may place some of the beechwoods 
of the Chilterns, certain small remnants of the old oak-forest of the 
Weald, dominated by Q. Robur (=Q. pedunculata), and some of the 
ashwoods of Somerset and north-east Yorkshire. The ground 
vegetation of such woods is no doubt primitive; though after 
extensive felling, light-demanding plants often invade the 
clearings, just as they constantly colonise the open “rides” or 
“drives” of a wood; and just as, even in a tract of virgin forest, 
species invade the more open portions from neighbouring plant- 
associations. These species, however, tend to disappear as the 
wood grows up after the “ fall.” 
(3) . Woods which are regularly planted up, after felling, with 
1 The system usually followed on estates has been first to 
“improve” (but not replace) the existing woods. Even the 
parklands round the great houses have had their characters 
determined by the woodland natural to the soil. 
