276 Horticultural Jottanda. 



planting pines, to the almost exclusion of hard- wooded trees, 

 has long been matter of complaint in our own country in an 

 economical point of view ; but surely as a matter of taste it is 

 equally bad : the form and structure of the pine at once 

 indicate it a mountain plant, and it never harmonises in 

 appearance with the massive forms of the broad-leaved trees 

 of the plain. It is said to be necessarily planted for nursing 

 other trees ; but species, I should think, might be found, having 

 all the requisites of nurse plants, as well as little starveling 

 pines ; some may be found of far greater rapidity of growth, 

 as the American poplars, where effect is required to be 

 speedily produced. 



The day was far spent, and the scattered pines cast their 

 long shadows athwart the valley, and the deep silence of 

 evening was broken only by the hoarse murmurs of the 

 torrent rolling along its centre. We had reascended a con- 

 siderable space, when, at a sudden turning of the path, with 

 a rapid descent, Ghamouni, Mont Blanc, and the lofty 

 Aiguille, revealed themselves at once. 



A glorious sunset streamed along the valley, and showed 

 the Anveron, in molten gold, winding through its wooded 

 bottom. On the left Mont Blanc reared " its bald awful 

 summit," tipped with the rosy tint of dying day. Every 

 recess and mountain valley was cast in deep and dusky shade, 

 while the huge glaciers and every salient mass were bathed 

 in auburn light. As we descended slowly, wrapt in ecstasy at 

 the glorious spectacle, the sun sank behind the western 

 termination of the valley, and all within it was veiled in 

 darkness. Still its light illuminated the summits of Mont 

 Blanc, and the Aiguille, that rose close on our left, like some 

 gigantic obelisk, so steep that the very snow cannot rest 

 upon it : rose-colour and green, as if emerald were melting 

 into amethyst, beamed and then faded from them both, and 

 all was dark; but still the wide domains of snow upon Mont 

 Blanc relieved themselves against the purple sky, and one 

 solitary star shone clear and steady just above its ample 

 dome, and lights now here and there began to twinkle 

 through the vale. We mended our pace, and soon arrived 

 at the comfortable inn ; the sparkling pine-log fire ; supper 

 of chamois, with other appliances : and the joyous antici- 

 pation of the morrow, by degrees gave way to fatigue, and 

 we journeyed to the Land of Nod. 



R. M. 

 Dublin^ April, 1833. 



(To be continued.) 



