182 THE ROYAL FOREST SCHOOL AT VALLOMBROSA. 



XX. Brief Account of the Royal Forest School at Vallomhrosa. 

 By Hugh Cleghorn, M.D., Stravithie, St Andrews. 



Italy, like other lands bordering the Mediterranean, has suffered 

 from wasteful denudation of her formerly wooded tracts, to the 

 detriment of the climate, to the poverty of the country, and to the 

 marring of her beauty. But she is in advance of the adjoining 

 countries of southern Europe, in having set herself to the task of 

 repairing the damage done in previous centuries. The woodlands 

 have long been looked upon by the people as common property, in 

 which they were free to pasture their herds, and from which they 

 might help themselves to wood ad libitum. Laws have now been 

 enacted to compel, under penalty, the replanting of communal 

 woods, and a code of forest laws is being prepared by the senate. 

 To render these thoroughly effective, they must be applicable to 

 private as well as to state forests, and for the administration of 

 these laws throughout the kingdom, officers are being trained at 

 the Royal Forest School of Vallombrosa, near Florence, an insti- 

 tution which promises to be successful in its work. A short 

 account of its history, and of a visit paid to it, may prove 

 interesting. 



On the 14th May 1875, I left the Hotel de l'Europe, Florence, 

 after early breakfast, and proceeded by the Arezzo Railway as far 

 as Pontassieve, which is reached in an hour. Here I engaged a 

 light one-horse vehicle (biroccino) for fourteen lires to Paterno 

 and back. The driver was a pleasant companion, a good-humoured 

 rustic, familiar with the surrounding country, who pointed out the 

 localities of the district, and received a friendly greeting from all 

 the cottagers we passed. The smooth, well-constructed road led 

 upwards by a series of easy zigzags ; dense cypress avenues were 

 seen near the villas, and many rows of mulberry trees fringed the 

 fertile fields ; much cultivated for fodder is lupinello (Onobrychis 

 saliva) ; and also a blue Iris, with a fragrant root. In waste 

 ground two showy species of Genista were in flower. At every 

 turn of the road, extensive views of the valley of the Arno lay 

 below us. The vineyards and orchards exhibited a high degree of 

 cultivation. 



At the old castle of Paterno, a young forest officer, Alberto 

 Helguero, informed me that the director, Cavalier Adolfo di 



