1884.] TUBES IN THE DOLOMITE DISTRICT. 247 



dendron, Bay, Laurel, Ash, Rowan, and Yucca, besides various rare 

 specimens unknown to nic. 



The charm of this lovely garden forms one of my pleasantest 

 memories of Northern Italy. 



A. G. GUILLEMARD. 



TREES IN THE DOLOMITE DISTRICT OF THE TYROL. 



By EDWARD JOHN TILT, M.D. 



N tlie way to the Tyrol, by Flushing and Munich, the traveller 

 hrst passes through the young Fir woods — Piiius inaritima — 

 that clothe the monotonous shores of Holland. He finds fine 

 Fir forests in Hesse Darmstad, finer still and more extensive in 

 Bavaria, but he will not see a tree more than sixty years old, for 

 foreigners do not love old trees as we do. Even in mountainous 

 countries, where Fir trees are indigenous, they have no chance of 

 growing to full size, unless they be high up in the mountains, three 

 or four hours' march from the haunts of men. Thus Fir trees of 

 immense size may still be found above liosenlaui on the way to the 

 Grosser Scheideck, also in Val Buona, three hours' march from Cortina 

 and near Paneveggio, about four hours from Neumarck. At Inspruck, 

 Jirixlegged and Varhn there is, hoAvever, evidence of good timber being 

 still available for buildings in the fact of the principal rooms in 

 recently-constructed hotels being floored with planks two feet wide. At 

 Varhn, nearBrixen, 1,900 feet above the sea-level, Acacias, Walnut trees 

 and Spanish Chestnuts were thriving in the lower parts of the valley. 

 .Some of the Chestnuts were very old : two were twenty-three feet in 

 girth at four feet from ground — all trees referred to in this paper 

 were measured in the same way. One was twenty- eight feet in girth, 

 and all three had been once larger, for part of the trunk had been torn 

 away. The upper part, of the hills are clothed with fine Fir forests 

 of no great age. Varhn is within an easy drive to Francesfeste, where 

 the train can be taken to Toblach, which is the principal entrance to 

 the Dolomite Mountains. 



Before relating what kind of trees grow there, I must say some- 

 thing of the soil they grow in, and of the scenery they help to 

 beautify. 



The greater heights of Swiss mountains, their dark colour and seem- 

 ingly imperishable material, their more extensive glaciers and larger 

 covering of permanent snow, render them far more imposing than the 

 Dolomite Mountains, but these carry off the palm of beauty so long 

 as it depends on bold and varied outline and exquisite richness of 



