78 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIliTV. 



III. Forest Administration in the Canton Vaiul, SwitzerlaiuL 

 By George Cadell, Lausanne. 



PRINCIPAL TREES OF THE CANTON. 



The canton of Vaud, though not one of the so-called forest 

 cantons of Switzerland which are clustered round the Lake of 

 Lucerne, yet possesses large and important forests, from which it 

 deri\es a substantial proportion of its revenue. Lying along the 

 northern bank of the Lake of Geneva, or, as the Vaudois prefer 

 to call it, the Lake Leman, it extends from the slopes of the 

 Jura, which form the frontier between France and Switzerland on 

 the "west, to the confines of the central Alps on the east. It thus 

 shares in the three shai'ply-defined zones of forest, into which the 

 different climates and soils met with divide the small country of 

 Switzerland. 



The beech, which is the characteristic tx'ee of northern Switzer- 

 land, forms a continuous chain on the Jura, at an altitude of from 

 1500 to 3000 feet. The chestnut, which in Switzerland occupies 

 the place of the oak, borders the lake, and runs along the valley 

 of the Rhone, uj) to the region where it is replaced by the larch.- 

 And this last, which grows to a gi-eat size in the central Alps — 

 trees of 80 feet in height and 6 feet in diameter being frequently 

 met with — follows the canton to its eastern limits. 



THEIR RESPECTIVE HABITATS. 



The three distinguishing trees, then, of the canton Vaud are 

 the beech {Fagus sylvatica), the chestnut (Castanea vesca), and 

 the larch [Larix Europcea), and it may not be amiss to give here 

 a short indication of their respective positions. The beech was 

 formerly the dominant tree of the canton, as indeed it was of the 

 whole of Switzerland above the central Alps. It has, however, 

 gradually receded before the cultivation of the vine ; and the 

 trees on the Jura, owing to the poorness of the calcareous soil, 

 are knotty, and branch too close to the ground to form good 

 timber trees. It is therefore chiefly used for firewood, and fur- 

 nishes the principal supply of that article. 



The chestnut attains its most exuberant growth in the moun- 

 tains, but is found in isolated patches throughout the canton ; 

 and the larch, which is highly valued as furnishing lasting 



