562 PROTECTION AGAINST SNOW. 



adapted to grow in regions where much snow falls annually. 

 On the contrary, trees with brittle attachment of the branches 

 to the stem, such as Pinus rigida, Mill, and some Eucalypti, 

 may withstand frost, but are broken to pieces by the snow. 



Most European trees withstand snow fairly well, but ever- 

 green conifers suffer most from it, in the following order : 

 Austrian and Scots pines and spruce ; less silver-fir. 



Weymouth pine resists snow well, owing to the elasticity of 

 its branches, and the larch suffers much less from snow than 

 other conifers owing to its having no needles in winter for 

 snow to rest on, but it may be injured when snow falls in 

 autumn before it has lost its needles. Cembran pine is 

 another tree found at high altitudes ; though growing slowly, 

 it attains a great age, and resists the snow owing to its tufted 

 foliage and tendency to form new leaders, which the silver-fir 

 also possesses. 



The Austrian pine does not resist snow well owing to its 

 dense crop of long needles, which allow much snow to rest on 

 its crown. The spruce generally suffers more than Scots pine, 

 as it grows at altitudes and on aspects where snow is most 

 frequent and least liable to thaw ; the Scots pine, on the other 

 hand, is chiefly grown in plains where snow is less frequent 

 and thaws sooner and cannot therefore accumulate in masses 

 on the crowns of the trees. Wherever the spruce and Scots 

 pine grow together in mixed woods, it is found that the latter 

 is less resisting owing to the brittle nature of its wood ; the 

 branches of the spruce, being more elastic and splitting less 

 readily, can support a greater weight of snow than pines. The 

 silver-fir is more resisting than the spruce, owing to the greater 

 depth of its root-system and the more upward insertion of its 

 branches. In Windsor Forest, after a heavy snowfall, the 

 position of any cluster pine can be at once recognised by the 

 heap of broken branches under the tree. 



Among broadleaued trees, the beech suffers most from snow, 

 not on account of its possessing less powers of resistance, but 

 because it ascends higher in mountains than other important 

 broadleaved species. 



Alder, robinia, aspen, and crack-willow suffe'r on account of 

 their brittle branches, and even the birch is broken badly if 



