Foreign Notices. — Germany, Switzerland. S91 



the leaves are put forth only in spring, and become yellow in autumn before 

 those of vigorous trees, and at this time the lower leaves are greener than 

 the upper. The branches incline towards the horizon, and form angles 

 sometimes of 60° or 70°. These apparent signs, and the thinness of the 

 layer deposited by the sap, indicate that the tree makes but small additions 

 to itself, and now it should be cut down. The nature of the soil should be 

 examined, as well as the kind of tree, to enable a judgment whether the 

 tree should be left to increase still further, or whether it will be more pro- 

 per to fell it. An exact age cannot be assigned for each species ; but it has 

 been observed that an elm, situated in an insulated plantation, may be felled 

 with advantage, when between seventy and eighty years of age. 

 _ Signs of Decay in a Tree. — When a tree becomes crowned (i. e., when 

 the upper branches die), it infallibly indicates, especially for isolated trees, 

 that the central wood is undergoing alteration, and the tree passing to de- 

 cay. When the bark separates from the wood, or when it is divided by 

 separations which pass across it, the tree is in a considerable state of degra- 

 dation. When the bark is loaded with moss, lichens, or fungi, or is marked 

 with black or red spots, these signs of alteration in the bark justify the sus- 

 picions of alteration in the wood within. When sap is seen to flow from 

 clefts in the bark, it is a sign that the trees will soon die. As to wounds 

 or gutterings, these defects may arise from local causes, and are not neces- 

 sarily the results of old age. (M. Baudrillac in Biblioth. Phys. Econom. 

 1826, p. 1.3., and in Jam. Phil. .Jour. Dec. 182?, p. 191.) 



GERMANY. 



Forest Culture of the Ancients. — M. Pfeil has undertaken a work on the 

 Forest Economy of the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, of which he has pub- 

 lished a fragment, in a periodical work, entitled Krit. Blcetter fur Foist und 

 Jagdwissenschaft, vol. ii. The author begins by asking why there does not 

 exist a regular system of forest management in any other countiy except 

 Germany ; the answer to which is, that other countries have not the same 

 want of such a system ; some, as Britain, have fossil-coal as fuel j others, as 

 Sweden, are but thinly peopled, and, consequently, the greater part of the 

 surface of the country is underwood. The information collected on the 

 forest culture of the Persians and the Greeks is, as may be expected, very 

 scanty, and of no great interest, especially to those who have seen the his- 

 tory of fruit-trees in the ages of antiquity, {Encyc. of Gard., § 8.) by Dr. 

 Sickler. {Bui. Un.) 



Paragreles have been tried in the neighbourhood of Vienna, and the re- 

 sult is said to have been favourable to their use, notwithstanding various 

 reports of a contrary description. {Ibid.) 



SWITZERLAND. 



The Stone Pine (Pinus Cthnbra). — This is one of the most useful trees in 

 Switzerland; it is, indeed, of very slow growth ; one of them, cut down 

 when 1 9 in. in diameter, displayed 353 concentric circles. Its usual growth 

 is a span in height in six years. The timber of this tree has a most agree- 

 able perfume, and is much used for domestic utensils, as well as for wains- 

 coting rooms, A traveller who visited the chateau of Tarasp was struck, 

 in almost every apartment, with the perfume of this wood: and he remarks 

 it as a surprising and inexplicable circumstance, that the wood should have 

 exhaled this perfume for some centuries in undiminished strength, and 

 without the wood itself having suffered any decrease of weight. But this 

 wood possesses another recommendation, rooms wainscoted with it are 

 not infested with bugs or moths. Its seeds are esteemed a delicacy ; they 

 are eaten in great quantities at the winter parties .; and on those occasions, 



C C 4 



