1028 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



It is, I think — of all the subjects which were submitted to the section 

 of silviculture at the International Congress of Agriculture at Vienna 

 in 1906 — the only one on which no conclusion was reached. 



In their prospectuses, where the commercial idea dominates forcibly, 

 dealers frequently express opinions which are too positive and which 

 are usually based on experiments the results of which, insufficiently 

 controlled, are contestable. Thus, very recently, in the case of Scotch 

 pine, a German house stated that seed of French origin was of an in- 

 ferior quality. A seed dealer in our country replied at once that the 

 seed received from Germany gave very bad results. These two state- 

 ments are manifestly exaggerations. 



To speak only on the part of France, I was able to see, at the end of 

 the excursions of the "Congres de I'Arbre et de I'Eau," in Limousin, in 

 1908 and 1909 — particularly at the home of de Belinay at Ligniac — 

 plantations of beautiful Scotch pine trees, derived from seed gathered 

 in the mountains of the Central Plateau, and I surveyed at the home of 

 Dupic at Gentioux (Creuse), and of d'Ussel and de Belinay at Ligniac 

 (Correze), magnificent stands of the same species, where the seed was 

 bought in Germany. 



R. Hickel, instructor of silviculture at the National Agricultural 

 School of Grignon, has written a very painstaking article in regard to 

 Scotch pine. In this article the author begins by sketching the geo- 

 graphical distribution of this species, pointing out that it is only found 

 indigenous in France in the mountains. He finally gives the results of 

 experiments carried on with the view to ascertaining whether certain 

 particular characteristics of different varieties are hereditary or not. 



Hickel investigates the geographical distribution of Scotch pine, its 

 horizontal optimum (in latitude) and its vertical optimum (in altitude). 

 If the horizontal optimum be reached in Eastern Prussia, Poland, Cour- 

 lande, and Livonia, regions where the so-called Riga pine grows, the 

 vertical optimum would be, according to him, in the mountains of Forey 

 and the surrounding regions (excepting, however, the provinces of 

 Cangal and Puy-de-Dome). There pines can be seen which, compara- 

 ble to those of Riga, show perfectly straight, cylindrical trunks, with 

 branches regularly disposed and relatively short, all characteristics 

 which contrast with those presented by the trees derived from seed 

 from Germany or from Haguenau. 



Hickel mentions particularly a plantation of old Scotch pines at Giat, 

 on the boundary of the provinces of Puy-de-Dome and of Creuse, evi- 

 dently indigenous, in his opinion, and which differs singularly from all 

 the others around, obtained more recently from imported seed. The 



