Foreign Notices: — Swiizerland, Sweden, and Nofwai/. 373 



collections ; and the fact of a hybrid fern being produced accidentally affords 

 a valuable hint for attempting to produce others according to art. The species 

 and varieties furnished to us by nature may be considered as the raw material, 

 and it is for man to improve them, for his various purposes of beauty or use, by 

 all the different modes of culture with which he is acquainted, or can devise ; 

 and of these hybridising may be considered as one of the chief. (^UE'cho du 

 Monde Savant, June 10. 1837.) 



SWITZERLAND. 



Lansanne, March, 1836. — You will receive with this a packet containing 

 various dried specimens, sketches of trees, dimensions, and other particulars, 

 which Mrs. B. and I have collected for your Arboretum. We have now been 

 here exactly two years ; and we set out, in a day or two, for Italy, whence you 

 shall hear from us. We have made a great many excursions ; and I need not tell 

 you how much we are delighted both with the country and the people. The 

 most remarkable circumstance, in my opinion, connected with Switzerland, is 

 the difference in climate and in productions which are to be met with in the 

 same locality, and even within a few yards of each other. The old custom of 

 leading a stranger to a spot, where with one hand he can touch a strawberry 

 and with the other eternal snow, is still kept up ; and the following quotation 

 from a work published nearly a century ago is as true now as it was when 

 originally written : — 



" The climate of this country, and especially of the Jorat, in the environs of 

 the lakes, in the smiling and fertile plains, which are found here and there, 

 and along the declivities and hills which look towards the south, is very warm ; 

 the vegetation there is rich and forward ; the productions those of countries 

 situated under the most favourable latitudes. In the environs of Lausanne 

 and Geneva, for example, which are protected from the north winds by the 

 elevated parts of the Jorat and the Jura, and where the rays of the sun are re- 

 flected by the waters of the lake and the rocks of Savoy, the heat is such, that 

 sweet chestnuts, walnuts, horsechestnuts, and even Lombardy poplars, thrive ; 

 it must be confessed, however, that the Lombardy does not attain the same 

 height, erect growth, and beauty, that it does in Italy. Wheat generally comes 

 into ear and flowers about the beginning of June, and is cut about the middle 

 of July. Rye shoots up in April, comes into ear about the end of the same 

 month or the commencement of May, flowers in the end of May, and is cut 

 about the end of July. Oats come into ear about the middle of June, and are 

 cut immediately after the wheat, in the end of July. The vine begins to shoot 

 about the end of February ; it is in full flower in the middle of June, and the 

 grapes are commonly gathered about the beginning of October. The meadows- 

 are green at the end of February or the beginning of March ; ami are mown at 

 the connnencement of July, and a second time in the middle of August. Near 

 Lausanne, it is observed that the harvest takes place about eleven days sooner 

 at the foot of the hill than on the summit. On the border of the lake, at 

 Cour, laurels grow in the open air ; melons and figs ripen quickly and per- 

 fectly ; pine-apples are kept in the green-house, and never heated. Towards 

 the summit of the hill, nuts are rarely found, and all the figs perish : peaches 

 never attain maturity there; and it is only apple and pear trees which ripeni 

 their fruit." (Hist. Nat. Jorat, i. p. 3.) 



There are, however, some elevated cantons, which are surrounded with 

 rocks, and enjoy a mild temperature ; these are mostly narrow valleys, and, 

 amongst others, the smiling valleys through which the Broye flows, that of 

 Mondon, and between Mondon and Payerue. 



It is different in other elevated cantons, such as those of Chalet-a-Gobet, 

 Chalet de la Viile, &c. 



SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 



Zones of Vegetation observed in the Scandinavian Peninsula. — "At North 

 Cape, lat. 71°, potatoes, broccoli, and gooseberries are reared with some diffi- 



B B 3 



