ECONOMIC FORESTRY. 395 
obtusatum, Kit.), which ranges into Hungary, and reaches 40 to 
60 ft., also occurs; but A. platanoides, L. (“ Acero riccio”), from 
which sugar can be prepared, is found only in the mountains. 
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. 
The Iberian peninsula is deficient in forest; but on the north 
coast there is much Pinus Pinaster, and on the Pyrenees, P. Laricio, 
P. pyrenaica, and P. halepensis occur, which, south of Lisbon, are 
replaced by P. Pinea, and on the limestone mountains of Grenada 
by Abies Pinsapo, Boiss. The chestnut, the holm oak, and the 
cork oak, are the chief broad-leaved trees of the peninsula, the 
former being cultivated, as in Italy and Sicily, for its fruit. 
In leaving the consideration of European trees, reference must be 
made to the extensive planting of Australian species of Lucalyptus 
(nat. order, IMyrtacee), especially #. Globulus, in the south of 
Europe ; to Quercus Ballota, the acorns of which are eaten in 
Sardinia; to Abelicea cretica, Sm. (nat. order, Ulmacee), the 
aromatic wood of which is known as “ false sandal-wood ;” and to 
a variety of cedar discovered by Sir Samuel Baker in the interior 
of Cyprus. 
ASIA. 
The most comprehensive survey of the flora of Asia is perhaps 
that by General Strachey in the Hncyclopedia Britannica,! from 
which the following is mainly condensed. We may perhaps con- 
sider the Continent as forming nine chief botanical provinces—viz., 
(1.) the northern, or Siberian; (2.) that of the Southern Steppes, 
passing north-eastwards into 1; south-eastwards into (3.) the Thi- 
betan region ; eastwards into (4.) the Chinese and Japanese having 
much affinity with the flora of North America; (5.) that of Asia 
Minor, Syria, and Persia, an eastward extension of the Mediter- 
ranean region ; (6.) the desert region of Arabia; (7.) Afghanistan ; 
passing into (8.) Northern India ; and (9.) the Indian Tropical Mon- 
soon region. 
1. SIBERIA. 
The absence of oak, as of heaths, east of the Urals is character- 
istic, though Larix sibirica, Led., shows the close connection of this 
flora with that of Northern Europe. Pines extend to 70 deg. N.; and 
1 Ninth edition, vol. ii, pp. 692-694, s.v, ‘* Asia,” 
