340 THE AMERICAN FORESTS. 
The multitude of species, intermixed as they are in their 
spontaneous growth, gives the American forest landscape a 
variety of aspect not often seen in the woods of Europe, and 
the gorgeous tints, which nature repeats from the dying dolphin 
to paint the falling leaf of the American maples, oaks, and ash 
trees, clothe the hillsides and fringe the water-courses with a 
rainbow splendor of foliage, unsurpassed by the brightest 
groupings of the tropical flora. It must be confessed, however, 
that both the northern and the southern declivities of the Alps 
exhibit a nearer approximation to this rich and multifarious 
coloring of autumnal vegetation than most American travellers 
in Europe are willing to allow; and, besides, the small decidu- 
ous shrubs which often carpet the forest-glades of these moun- 
tains are dyed with a ruddy and orange glow, which, in the 
distant landscape, is no mean substitute for the scarlet and 
crimson and gold and amber of the transatlantic woodland.* 
I admit, though not without reluctance, that the forest-trees 
rises to twenty-three pounds. The annual production of olive-oil in the whole 
of Italy is estimated at upwards of 850,000,000 pounds, and if we allow twelve 
pounds to the tree, we have something more than 70,000,000 trees. The real 
number of trees is, however, much greater than this estimate, for in Tuscany 
and many other parts of Italy the average yield of oil per tree does not exceed 
two pounds, and there are many millions of young trees not yet in bearing. 
Probably we shall not exaggerate if we estimate the olive trees of Italy at 
100,000,000, and as there are about a hundred trees to the acre, the quantity 
of land devoted to the cultivation of the olive may be taken at a million acres, 
Although olive-oil is much used in cookery in Italy, lard is preferred as more 
nutritious. Much American lard is exported to South-eastern Italy, and olive- 
oil is imported in return. 
* The most gorgeous autumnal coloring I have observed in the vegetation of 
Europe has been in the valleys of the Durance and its tributaries in Dauphiny. 
I must admit that neither in variety nor in purity and brilliancy of tint, does 
this coloring fall much, if at all, short of that of the New England woods. 
But there is this difference: in Dauphiny, it is only in small shrubs that this 
rich painting is seen, while in North America the foliage of large trees is dyed 
in full splendor. Hence the American woodland has fewer broken lights and 
more of what painters call breadth of coloring. Besides this, the arrangement 
of the leafage in large globular or conical masses, affords a wider scale of light 
and shade, thus aiding now the gradation now the contrast of tints, and gives 
