CONTINENTAL NOTES — FRANCP:. 45 



summer M. Jolyet takes 191 1. His principal idea is to consider 

 how the conifers whose home is in the mountains, but which 

 everyone now plants at low altitudes, out of their true habitat, 

 can stand these excesses of climate. It is a valuable inquiry. 

 M. Jolyet has good means of observation, since he is in charge 

 of the arboretum at Nancy, and has many correspondents in 

 France, Belgium and Switzerland. He gives the palm of 

 resistance to drought to the Austrian pine, and after this to 

 the silver fir, a species supposed to want much rain ; but his 

 observations have been carefully made. Unfortunately, while 

 good against drought the silver has a limited capacity for 

 standing winter frost, and of course it is very tender against 

 spring and autumn frosts. Fortunately for us, the winter frost 

 which kills it is never reached in Great Britain. It is true the 

 habitat of the silver runs to great altitudes, but though the cold 

 lasts longer there it is not more severe than at a lower level ; on 

 the contrary, frost is more harmful in the dry air of the valleys 

 than in the moist air of the mountains. It can always be 

 remembered, too, that the atmospheric moisture in these islands 

 must be greater than on the Continent, a fact of importance to us, 

 for many species require moist air. The larch did not stand the 

 drought well in France (M. Jolyet is, probably, referring to east 

 or central France) — more especially the Japanese larch. My 

 own experience in the south part of the Midlands was that while 

 the Japanese made a very poor resistance to the drought of 191 1 

 it was only occasionally that common larch suffered, except of 

 course when but recently planted ; indeed it generally throve 

 grandly in the bright light— a light more resembling that which 

 the tree is accustomed to in its own habitat on the tops of the 

 mountains than is usual in England. So much indeed was this 

 the case as to impress upon me the conviction that it must be 

 advantageous to place larch on as bright aspects as possible. It 

 is true that it is said to suffer from late frosts in low land, because 

 of its early sprouting, and the aspects generally recommended 

 for it are not those I have been suggesting, but it is a fact that in 

 the situation I am thinking of, namely an exposed, gently sloping 

 place with a S.W. aspect, the growth was very vigorous, in most 

 cases, in 191 1. The spruce, of course, stood the drought badly 

 in France. Abies concolor (a favourite with M. Jolyet) behaved 

 excellently, as also the Colorado Douglas. Both these also 

 stand extreme cold well — better than the Vancouver Douglas ; 



