No. 129.] 571 



tions on the road sides. The poplars, especially the Italian, are 

 proscribed. The trees now growing are to be removed in order 

 to be replaced by other sorts. One exception, however, is made 

 as to poplars, and that is the Canadian. The trees to be planted 

 are to be according to soil, &c. The ash, willow and the various 

 maples on marshy soils ; the larch and other conifers on silicious 

 lands ; >and where the roads traverse populous districts the plant- 

 ing of any other than fruit trees is prohibited absolutely. The 

 English journals are very merry at this; they say it is a queer 

 document. But we see in it a proof of the spirit of order and 

 of respect for property, which generally reigns throughout Ger- 

 many. If France was so planted with eatable fruits along road 

 sides, the trees would be mutilated, and branches broken to get 

 at the fruit at least a month before they were ripe. 



It is well known that in Picardy and Normandy, where the 

 roadsides are often planted with apple trees, they take good care 

 to plant none but cider apples, which the people call thieves'' ap- 

 ples because, when bitten, they take people by the throat. 



[KevueHorticole, Feb., 1852.] 



Longevity of Seeds. — It is a question of the highest interest 

 for practical horticulture, but still enveloped in obscurity, and 

 that is the duration of vitality in seeds. Our gardeners all know 

 that the seeds of cultivated sorts lose their germinating power in 

 a short time, when collected and preserved in our accustomed 

 way. The story of those beans taken from the Herbarium of M, 

 Tournefort, and which it is said germinated after being a hun- 

 dred years in the Herbarium, leads to further views of native 

 growth. Observation all over the globe has proved that after 

 the destruction of a forest, we behold another one of a different 

 tree take its place. How comes this 1 Evidently from the 

 ground, where the seeds of this new forest were buried, and 

 where they have lain lethargic for want of air, warmth, and other 

 conditions necessary for their germination. But then, when we 

 reflect that some of these forests have been there for centuries, 

 and even for some thousands of years without change, and the 

 improbability that the seeds of other trees, some of which are 

 quite large, would be either brought by winds from great distan- 



