384 Foreign JVotices. 



reous land ; whilst some exceed perfectly, and others tolerably, in poor 

 silicious land. He has planted a great number in land of this descrip- 

 tion; and there is every reason to believe that the results will be most 

 gratifying, particularly as similar experiments, on a vast scale, made on 

 a poor sandy soil in the Bois de Boulogne, near Paris, by M, Dandre, 

 have been attended with unhoped for success. It is probable that, if so 

 few American oaks are seen in France, after so many attempts made to 

 extend them during the last century, the reason will be found in the fact 

 that they were planted in earth which was not suitable to them. 



Poplars. — M. Vilmorin has made many experiments relative to this 

 tree, and he finds that the plantations which he has made in silicious or 

 sandy ground, succeed most satisfactorily for every description, where- 

 as only few succeed well in a calcareous soil. Thus, the Topulus n'lvea, 

 FicH, of the same age, is a third or half stronger in a silicious ground 

 than in a calcai'eous one. The poplar of Canada, Vopulus canadensis, 

 Lin., is in the same case ; whilst the Swiss poplar, Fopuhis virginiuna, 

 Lin., grows well in calcareous land, and astonishingly well in certain 

 parts of it. As to the Populus n'lvea, M. Vilmorin does not consider 

 that, in size or height, it equals the white poplar of Holland, Fopulus 

 alba, Lin. This latter species must always be preferred, when a larger 

 trunk and good height are required, but the other is superior in the 

 beauty of its foliage. 



Elms. — The twisted elm has always been an object of solicitude to 

 planters, from its being the only wood fit for making good stocks for 

 carriage wheels. M. Vilmorin has received several packets of plants 

 from various parts of France, and is inclined to believe that there are 

 at least two distinct varieties. Although botanists regard this tree as a 

 variety of the common elm, yet arborists are authorized to believe that 

 it is a natural kind, since the seed of the common elm never produces 

 it. However this question may be decided, the twisted elm grows per- 

 fectly well in the poor calcareous ground of Les Barres, and M. Vilmo- 

 rin plants a great number every year. It grows there more rapidly 

 than the common kind, and is a far handsomer tree ; the bark is quite 

 smooth, of a deep green, and enables one to distinguish the variety at a 

 glance. When about twelve or fifteen years old, it may be seen that, 

 under the bark along the length of the trunk, there are formed lumps or 

 elevations, which appear to be produced by the interlacing of the fibres, 

 and from these arises that wonderful resistance which the wood op- 

 poses, when an attempt is made to split it. It is this quality which 

 renders it so appropriate for the naves of wheels. There is nothing 

 extraordinary in this tree succeeding so well in the calcareous lands of 

 M. Vilmorin, for, of all trees, elms are those which grow best in that 

 description of earth. Near Paris, at Bourg-la-Reine, there are some 

 splendid elms along the road, and the roots of these are all fixed in a 

 white calcareous bottom, nearly pure, covered with onl}'^ a few inches 

 of vegetable earth. Yet, although these trees are exceedingly beauti- 

 ful, and have acquired a vast size from age, they would be still finer in 

 an aluminous soil, and here is proof of the assertion: All the land of 

 the plains, through which the road from Paris to Meaux passes, is of a 

 calcareous nature, but of good quality. The elms which line the road 

 appear exceedingly fine, as long as no others have been seen ; but 

 when the traveller has passed Meaux, in taking the road to Ferte- 

 Milon, he sees elms, no comparison more beautiful, and of a green far 

 deeper. The reason is, that the earth is no longer calcareous ; it is 

 aluminous, the soil of all others best suited to the ti-ec. There is this 

 difference between the beach and the elm, that, though they both grow 

 so well in calcareous ground, yet the beech is fondest of moisture, and 

 the elm of a calcareous soil exceedingly dry. Some years ago, the gov- 



