| No. | Rocks. | Apple. | Pear. | Oak. | Elm. | Beech. | Firs. | ||||
| Cretaceous Rocks. | - | 1 | Chalk | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 5 | ||
| 2 | Green Sands | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 3 | ||||
| 3 | Gault | 4 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Jurassique Rocks. | - | 4 | Oxford Clay | 6 | 0 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 5 | Oolite Freestone | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 5 | ||||
| 6 | Lias | 10 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 1 | ||||
| 7 | New Red Sandstone | 8 | 10 | 7 | 12 | 0 | 2 | ||||
| 8 | Mountain Limestone | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| 9 | Old Red Sandstone | 15 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 1 | ||||
These figures may serve to express—although roughly—the capacities of different formations for the production of fruit and forest trees, and it may be curious to note that, while the chalk and the oolite freestones, both composed of carbonate of lime, offer a remarkable agreement in point of dendrological productions, the mountain limestone, also consisting of carbonate of lime, affords very different results; here, no doubt, the different kinds of scenery presented by the rocks themselves have a decided influence on the general results.
Much, however, of any geological influence in the growth of trees must depend upon the material rather than upon the position of the rocks forming the subsoil upon which they occur, and thus it may be expected that clays, limestones, and sands, and different mixtures of these, will each favour the growth of a peculiar spontaneous or native vegetation; so that, if we looked to a larger list of trees and coupled it with lists of herbaceous plants, we might make out even a stronger case, either for the effects of geological or lithological conditions; but enough has been said to point out that various trees naturally affect one position more than another, and so they succeed as the results of planting and cultivation in one kind of soil in preference to another, and it may be laid down as a rule, that pomaceous fruits and hard-wooded trees, as oak and elm, only flourish in strong soils, though they may be imperfectly grown in all soils, whilst soft-wooded trees, as beech, lime, and the coniferæ, succeed best in lighter soils; hence, then, the planter who would try to grow vigorous oak on sandbeds would be disappointed, and while beech is the “weed” of the Cotteswold oolite, whoever tries to grow an orchard upon the freestone rocks is sure to meet with disappointment.
As regards forest trees we shall, for the most part, confine our remarks to those of the following list, as, although of recent years many new genera and species have been introduced, they are not yet in general cultivation even for ornamental purposes, much less as a source of profit.
| LIST OF NATIVE OR NATURALIZED FOREST TREES. | ||||
| Oak | - | Our more common timber trees used in buildings, furniture, cooperage, turnery, &c. | ||
| Chestnut | ||||
| Walnut | ||||
| Elm | ||||
| Ash | ||||
| Beech | ||||
| Birch | - | Employed in furniture, turnery, &c. The British Coniferæ are not used for timber, except for fencing and other common purposes. | ||
| Larch | ||||
| Spruce | ||||
| Scotch Fir | ||||
| Poplar | ||||
| Plane | - | Employed for turnery, picture-frames, and occasional useful purposes. | ||
| Mountain Ash | ||||
| Maple | ||||
| Lime | ||||
CHAPTER XLII.
ON THE BRITISH OAK.
Whilst the discussion is still pending, of iron against wooden bulwarks, if only for the love we feel towards the “brave old oak,” a few notes upon the forms of this truly national tree can hardly fail to be acceptable. At starting, however, we must bear in mind, that though we have ever looked upon the oak as so thoroughly British that we had almost been brought to think that it was made for the sole glory of our land, yet there are those who would wish to cast a doubt upon its true aboriginal nature, and who, according to their custom, represent everything great as borrowed from the Continent. What says, however, that pleasant discourser on forest trees, Jacob George Strutt, of imperishable sylvan fame:—“In proportion as the oak is valued above all other trees, so is the English oak esteemed above that of any other country, for its particular characteristics of hardness and toughness, qualities which so peculiarly fit it to be the ‘father of ships,’ and which are so admirably expressed in two epithets by that great poet, to whom the book of nature and of the human heart seemed alike laid open:—