34 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



quickly at a variety suited to its environment. And, in fact, 

 the question of the place of origin of the seeds used is, it 

 is well known, very important. It has, in the past, been much 

 overlooked, and the French are now waking up to the harm 

 done by this carelessness. MM. Guinier and Hickel, for instance, 

 are strongly advocating closer attention to the point. As an 

 example of what may happen M. Hickel remarks that when, 

 as often happens, the pedunculate oak has failed to seed in the 

 north, acorns have been obtained from the south-west, where 

 seed years are constant, and that the results have been bad. It 

 is the same with species which, like the beech, have a large 

 zone of altitude. It seems certain, he says, that the seed 

 should be obtained from the same zone of altitude as that 

 of the place where it is to be used. Cieslar, in Austria, and 

 Engler, in Switzerland, have done much work in examining 

 this point. They have shown, for example, that spruce sown 

 at a low altitude have done best when the seed has been 

 ■obtained from trees growing at a low altitude. Incidentally, 

 M. Hickel remarks that the droughts of 191 1 and 192 1 have 

 emphasised, once again, the error that has been made in 

 planting spruce (a tree of the mountains) in the plains of France. 

 However, in Britain, our latitude being higher, the defect in 

 altitude would, of course, be less important. Moreover, in 

 addition to the higher latitude, we have plenty of high ground. 



At the same time M. Hickel seems, in one case, to be a 

 little inconsistent, for he is a great advocate for using the Riga 

 (Scots) pine in France rather than the (Scots) pine of Haguenau 

 (Alsace). It is true that Haguenau is supposed to be the 

 south-west limit of the habitat of that species in Europe, but, 

 •even so, surely Alsace is, climatically, more like the plains 

 of France than is Riga. 



M. Hickel also makes the interesting remark that certain 

 species (beech, the oaks, ash, hornbeam, Spanish chestnut, 

 the maples, silver fir, larch, Pinus ??ioniana, the Aleppo and 

 the Cembran pine) remain practically stable throughout their 

 habitat, whereas the spruce, Scots pine (especially Scots pine), 

 F. Laricio, and Maritime pine often show forms of variable value. 



VII. In France they are now paying some attention to the 

 introduction of the Atlas cedar in the southern Departments, 

 but at considerable altitudes. They find that when ihey collect 



