L'^COLB FORBSTIBRB DBS BARRES, 105 



identity or the difference, is what I have undertaken and carried into 

 execution, as may be seen by statistical details relative to these 

 species. 



'* I have brought together, in clumps more or less extensive, 

 according to their importance, the pwiz^s sylvestris of every variety 

 indicated by authors, and all those which, by whatever name known, 

 it appeared to me might prove useful in this collection. In regard to 

 the Riga pine, I have not been confined to a solitary lot : independent 

 of seeds which I procured from the north, from sources the most 

 certain, wherever I had knowledge of old plantations in France, 

 known or presumed to have had the same origin, I have managed to 

 obtain seeds or plants which, added to the lots introduced, directly 

 furnished the means of studying further the question. 



" These plantations have had for their special object the solution 

 of numerous questions of botany and of forest economy, of which 

 some are of great importance to France. 



" Commenced thirty years ago, and with this view, and augmented 

 every year since, they form now perhaps one of the most interesting 

 and most useful collections of this kind in any country. They com- 

 prise, amongst other species, an assemblage of more than thirty lots 

 of the pinus sylvestris, obtained from as many diflferent quarters and 

 sources, for the study of the varieties of the species, and more 

 particularly of the mast pines, or Riga pine, of absolutely certain 

 origin, planted to admit of comparison with other varieties of the 

 pinus sylvestris, by means of which might be cleared away the 

 doubts which have hitherto existed in regard to this tree, so im- 

 portant for naval architecture ; an ecole of pinus mugho, pinus 

 2nimilio, and innus uncinata, a necessary complement to the other 

 in view of forest study ; all the pines of the series of the Laricios, 

 trees of great interest in sylviculture, but trees in regard to which 

 there exists at this time in books great confusion. The clumps of 

 this series constitute one of the most beautiful portions of the plan- 

 tations at Barres ; one variety hitherto little known, the Laricio of 

 Calabria, commands attention by its great vigour and beauty, as does 

 also the Pine of the Pyrenees, a very beautiful tree of recent intro- 

 duction ; a plantation of Cedar of Lebanon, growing rustically among 

 the pines, is thriving well ; a collection of the forest oaks of South 

 America, amongst which the most important, such as the Quercitron, 

 the Red Oak, &c., have established themselves in massive plots; 

 plantations of American Nuts, of Bouleazc d, Canot, of the Alnus 

 CordifoUa, and of other exotic trees, the qualities of which and their 



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