ABSTRACT
In spite of the fact that the conifers have adapted themselves so successfully to a remarkable variety of climates, over large areas they have been unable to compete with broad-leaved angiosperms during post-glacial times. In the northern hemisphere much of this broad-leaved forest was of the deciduous summer forest formation-type with representative formations in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America. Certain specialised formations of this formation-type also appear to be climatic climax in between the boreal forest and the steppe in Saskatchewan, Alberta and parts of Siberia. North of the Tropic of Cancer it was only in Japan, south China and, locally, in south-eastern U.S.A. that evergreen broad-leaved trees had been able to retain almost complete dominance. In the extra-tropical regions of the southern hemisphere, however, the situation is reversed. Here the broad-leaved forests are almost entirely evergreen; it is only locally in Chilean Patagonia that there is a formation of deciduous summer forest.
