Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol03B.djvu/148

534 planted on other formations. There is no doubt, however, that it formed a consider- able part of the ancient forests, which existed to the north and east of London ; and in the Lea division of Hertfordshire ' it still forms the chief portion of the underwood ; whilst it is common in Essex and Kent, where it is usually treated as coppice.

The hornbeam has been found in the fossil state in Suffolk, in the interglacial strata at Hoxne, and in the preglacial strata at Pakefield.”

Carpinus Betulus is widely distributed on the continent of Europe, and occurs also in Asia Minor, the Caucasus, and Persia. In Europe, its northern limit, beginning in Norfolk in England, crosses over to Denmark and South Sweden, where it ascends on the west coast to lat. 56° 30’, and on the east coast to 57° 13’, reaching its extreme northerly point on the island of Gothland in lat. 57° 20’. In Norway, Schubeler says, it is not wild; but he has seen a tree at Christiania, planted in 1818, which in 1885 measured 36 feet by 4 feet. In Russia, the hornbeam occurs as far north as lat. 56° 10’ on the coast of Courland, and is confined to the provinces which lie west of an irregular line drawn from near Riga to the Sea of Azov, its most easterly localities being in the governments of Vitebsk, Mohilef, Chernigof, and Poltava, and in the Crimea. South and west of the above limits, the hornbeam is spread through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austrian Empire, Balkan Peninsula, Greece, Switzerland, and continental Italy; but is not found wild in Spain, Portugal, Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily.

In France, the hornbeam is most common in the north and east, where it forms a large part of the coppice forests, and also occurs as undergrowth in the high forests of beech and oak. Its southerly limit in France is a curved line extending from Grenoble through Toulouse to near Bordeaux. Towards the west and south, it becomes a rare tree, and is totally absent from Brittany. It is rather a tree of the plains and low hills than of the mountains; but ascends in the Vosges to 2000 feet, in the Jura to 2300 feet, and in the French Alps to 2800 feet. Treated as coppice, its growth is very rapid in France, where it takes the first rank as firewood.

In Germany the hornbeam is widely spread in the plains and low hills, where it grows usually, as in France, in company with the beech and other deciduous trees, either as scattered individuals or in small groups. In east Prussia, where the beech does not occur, the hornbeam replaces it and grows to great perfection, often forming part of the spruce and pine forests. Pure woods are rare, though some of consider- able extent occur, according to Willkomm, in Alsace, Baden, and South Bavaria. In Austria, Hungary, the Balkan States, and Greece, the hornbeam is no longer a tree of the plain, but grows in the mountains in the beech forests. It ascends in the Harz mountains to 1250 feet, in the Bavarian Alps to 2900 feet, and in the Swiss Alps to 3000 feet.

According to Radde,’ it is met with through the whole region of the Caucasus, at elevations ranging from sea-level to 5600 feet. It is also recorded from the northern provinces of Asia Minor, and from Ghilan in Northern Persia.

1 Pryor, Flora of Hertfordshire, 373 (1887).

? C, Reid, Origin Brit, Flora, 144 (1899).

3 Pflanzenverb. Kaukasusland, 183 (1899).