Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 
179 
single blade under those which remain standing. 
Drip versus shade may be urged as having been 
the deleterious cause here, but excretion cannot. 
The only larches I know in England more than 
half a century old, which have never shown a 
symptom of foxy blight, are a plantation in this 
neighbourhood, which succeeded immediately 
the felling of an old, perhaps primaeval,^beech 
wood, on a thin staple over chalk. On that 
part of the site of the old beech wood next the 
larch, a new self-sown beech wood, mixed with 
ash and oak, has sprung up, which is equally 
flourishing with the larch. 
In fact, the soil of woods is not impoverished 
by their luxuriant growth, or by the quantity 
of material taken from them by man, nor is it 
poisoned by excretions from the roots, even of 
beech-trees; but, on the contrary, when woods 
are grubbed, the soil is much richer, either for 
the growth of trees, or of farm produce, than 
the surrounding ground. Probably the main 
cause of this is, that the roots protect the ground 
from aqueous denudation, and allow a greater 
accumulation of soil, formed by disintegration 
and by vegetable chemistry. At the risk of 
being hooted at, I will, however, suggest another 
possible cause. 
The soil of 
woods does not 
become poorer, 
but richer. 
Is there any 
other cause for 
this besides pro¬ 
tection by the 
roots from 
aqueous denu¬ 
dation ? 
