ON THE CORSICAN FIE. 229 



maceration and bleaching, manufactured * into " Pine ivool" a 

 substance used for stuffing mattresses, pillows, &c. A hot bath 

 of tlie fir leaves is supposed to possess a healing power, and 

 there are many fashionable little bathing-places which have, 

 partly on that account, acquired a reputation.i* A, spirituous 

 beverage, dignified with the name of " toddy," is also decocted 

 from the leaves of this and other pines, and at present advertise- 

 ments regarding this toddy may frequently be noticed in the 

 German newspapers. 



Tliis tree must be characterised as one that does not make hioh 

 demands on the quality or richness of the soil, but it can as 

 emphatically be asserted that it prefers such as are of a limy 

 nature. Although the Corsican lir, if cultivated over sand or 

 loam, usually thrives moderately well, still these soils cannot be 

 regarded as its home. It is mainly over lime, more especially 

 over the magnesian variety (Dolomite), that natural forests of the 

 tree are to be looked for. On shallow, stony, and dry lime, wdth 

 but a poor admixture of vegetable mould, it will be found to 

 prosper better than any other tree ; it speedily sends its roots 

 deep into the clefts of the rocks and manages to gain sufficient 

 nourishment, although, of course, under such unfavourable 

 circumstances it cannot attain the same length of bole as over a 

 deeper soil, A dry soil is more suitable for its growth than a 

 moist one, and therefore such subsoils as rapidly permit a super- 

 fluity of moisture to effect an escape are more favourable than 

 such as retain the same ; cleft and tilted strata are thus prefer- 

 able to uncleft massive rocks, horizontal layers, plastic clay, or 

 moorpan. 



As regards exposure, it loves the warm sunny south-eastern, 

 southern, and south-western slopes, which are less moist than 

 those inclined towards the north. By virtue of its strong root 

 system it can withstand the storm better than any other conifer. 



In the " Wienerwald " near Vienna two kinds of soil are to be 

 found, viz., a sand yielding a deep loam containing lime, and low 

 lime hills. It is on these latter that the largest pure forests in 

 Europe of Corsican fir, Austrian or black pine, is to be met 

 with; it alone covers about 26,000 acres or 40 square miles, 

 while in addition the fir also occurs here and there among the other 

 forest trees. It has been brought down from the mountain slopes 

 to cover the dry boulder area, the " Stemfeld " near Neustadt, 

 1300 acres or two square miles in extent, and there it gives better 

 results than any other tree, by means of the rich fall of leaves 

 most speedily accomplishing the enrichment of the unfruitful soil. 



Around Trieste large plantations are being made in a hilly 

 district named the "Karst," over an impoverished chalky soil 



* Fd" instance, rt the Brill, uear Vienna. 



t As one of such may be mentioned Arkachon in the Landes. 



