162 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. PART Ie 
In the botanic garden, Zizyphus vulgaris, the pomegranate, and the fig, live 
against walls, and ripen their fruits. The kélreuteria, the cork tree, Quércus 
fastigiata, Jiglans fraxinifolia, and the Arando Donax, stand at Geneva, even 
in the open country. Quércus fastigiata, in particular, which was introduced 
by M. De Candolle about 1820, promises to become a great ornament to the 
Swiss parks. The resemblance which this tree bears to the Lombardy poplar, 
except that it has an oak leaf, gives it a very extraordinary degree of interest. 
If we search in Switzerland for trees remarkable for their antiquity or rarity, 
we shall find several worthy of being mentioned here. We shall begin with 
indigenous trees, and then proceed to those which are exotic. 
At Fribourg, in the public square, thereis a large lime, the branches of which 
are supported by pieces of wood. This tree was planted on the day when the 
victory was proclaimed of the Swiss over the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the 
Rash, in the year 1476; and it is a monument admirably accordant with the 
then feebleness of the Swiss republics, and the extreme simplicity of their man- 
ners. In 183], the trunk of this tree measured 13 ft. 9 in. in circumference. 
The tree of Trons, in the Grisons, is amonument of a similar nature: under 
the shade of this tree, it is said that the deputies of the country swore to free 
themselves from the yoke of their lords. This tree is celebrated inall the local 
poems as being a lime, but the fact is, that it is a sycamore (A‘cer Pseudo- 
Pilatanus ), the trunk of which is now 26 ft. 6in. in circumference at Ift. 6in. from 
the ground. We can hardly suppose that it could have been less than 100 
years old, when it served asa place of rendezvous for the conspirators, in which 
case it must be now nearly 500 years old. In the Bisliothéque Universelle de 
Genéve, for August, 1831, there is a letter from Colonel Augustus Bontemps, 
in which it is mentioned, that the probable reason why this sycamore is called 
a lime in the local poems is, that the German word “ ahorn,” which signifies a 
sycamore, is very unpoetical, while that for a lime tree, “ linde,” is soft and 
liquid ; and this made the former be rejected by the writers of the old ballads. 
At Zoffingen there are two lime trees, on the branches of which is placed a 
plank in such a manner as to enable any one to walk from the one to the other; 
and thus, people may not only walk, but even dance, upon the foliage of the 
tree. In the village of Villars-en-Morig, near Fribourg, there is a large lime, 
which existed there long before the battle of Morat (which the tree at Fribourg 
commemorates), and which is now of extraordinary dimensions. It was, in 
1831, 70 ft. high, and 36 ft. in circumference at 4 ft. from the ground, where it 
divided into large and perfectly sound branches. It must be nearly 1000 years 
old. (See De Candolle’s Physiologie Végétale, p. 987.) 
These are certainly the most remarkable trees in Switzerland, because they 
are all linked, more or less, with the history of the country. They speak to 
the imaginations of the people, and are connected, not only with the amuse- 
ments of each generation, but with the victories that, in ancient times, secured 
the independence of the Swiss. 
We shall now mention some trees which are interesting in a botanical point 
of view. These are almost all found in the neighbourhood of Geneva, where 
the Messrs. De Candolle, father and son, have taken care to measure them, in 
order to commence a series of exact observations on the growth of trees. 
These two naturalists are aware, that, in order to calculate the age and pro- 
ducts of old trees, we want data as to their growth after they have passed a 
century or two of their existence ; and they have conceived the idea of making 
a register of all the numerous measurements that they have taken, designating 
exactly the local position of the trees. They mean to deposit this register im 
some public establishment, in order that other botanists may, after them, con- 
tinue the same kind of observations on the same trees during several centuries.* 
* The botanical reader is, no doubt, aware that Professor De Candolle was 
the first to throw out the idea, that exogenous trees have no definite term 
affixed to their existence, and, consequently, that there can be no limit to the 
number of years that a dicotyledonous tree may live. (See Physiologie Végétale, 
vol. iii. p. 957—1022.) 
