106 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



importance. The bark, which is particularly rich in tannin, 

 confers a well-earned celebrity on the leather which is cured in 

 the Department ; while the acorns fatten a special race of pigs, 

 who in their turn furnish the locally famous hams of Bayonne. 

 The gall-nuts taken from the holm oaks are used for dyeing 

 scarlet. The beech occupies in the hills the same place as the oak 

 does in the plains, and grows to the extreme limit of forest life, 

 about 1800 feet; but, owing to its inaccessibility, the timber is of 

 little value. Of the spruce, it may shortly be said that its quality 

 is quite equal to that of the trees brought over sea. Under the 

 forcing sun of June, the bamboo, it is quite credibly stated, 

 makes a spurt of growth at the rate of 30 centimetres, or 

 12 inches, in the twenty-four hours; but this is, of course, not 

 maintained as in India, where bamboos attain a height of 80 feet 

 in a single season. The short but sharp frosts of winter forbid 

 the general use of even semi-tropical plants in the open. 



Of THE Exports and Imports. 



There are no exports of wood from the Department, any ship- 

 ments of timber from Bayonne consisting of pit-props furnished 

 by the forests of the Landes, and generally destined for England. 

 Imjiorts, which are landed also at Bayonne, consist of the Dantzic 

 oak (as has before been noted), the Norway spruce, and the 

 pitch pine. 



Of the Woods under Forest Administration, 



The area of the woods submitted to forest administration in 

 the Department is 55,691 hectares, a little over 136,000 acres, of 

 which 70 per cent, are situated in the mountains, where alone 

 they are of any great extent. The forests of the plains are 

 isolated, and do not exceed 216 hectares in area. The most 

 important of the latter is the Forest of Bastard, which was a 

 royal domain previous to 1669. It lies a short distance to the 

 north of Pau, and is managed as underwood under high forest, 

 with a revolution of twenty-five years for the underwood. 



Of the Nature of Treatment. 



Pure and mixed forests divide almost equally the area of the 

 State forests, the former being generally on the mountains and 



