204 Foreign Notices : — Spain, 



stood for centuries, may be observed, as in the villages in England, the object 

 of respect and veneration to the people. The French invasion has fearfullyin- 

 creased the destruction, by the wanton havoc always made by soldiers in time 

 of war. The only people who are exempt from it, in some degree, are the 

 people of the northern provinces, and the Catalans and Valencians ; but in 

 those provinces it is little better, and the mode of pruning or polling them, 

 especially the pines, is ruinous to the growth of these trees. In Biscay they 

 now cultivate scarcely any other than the beech, the worst and most unprofit- 

 able of trees, under whose shade no vegetation thrives. In the maritime part 

 of the free provinces, their building timber is the miserable pin de Landes, 

 bought from the French, which is valueless, whilst their mountains would 

 produce the finest timber. 



" To give the most clear idea of the forest vegetation, especially in the im- 

 portant bearings of the successive elevations, or zones, two sections will be 

 given : ox\e {fig. 20.) extending across the Pyrenees to the west, and follow- 

 ing the line of the Sierra de Cuenca, Sierra de Segura, Sierra Nevada, and 

 Serrania de Ronda, to Gibraltar ; the other [which will appear in a subse- 

 quent extract] from Valencia, by the Sierra de Cuenca, the Sierra de Guadar- 

 rama, across Old Castile, by the Puerto de Pajares in the elevated range of 

 Asturias, to the Bay of Biscay. These two lines intersect each other, and, 

 by filling up the parts which they do not touch, will give a general idea of the 

 natural forest system through the country. 



" The northern side of the High Pyrenees affords a complete example of 

 successive zones, or lines, of superposed vegetation, which can be traced along 

 the flank of the higher range, by threading the mountains between Bagneres 

 de Bigorre and de Luchon, and the country east and west of these places. In 

 the ascending series, the vine, chestnut, and oak of various species, are suc- 

 ceeded by the beech, the silver fir, and a few of the Pinus sylvestris, or Scotch 

 pine; and the highest and most inclement range, up to the limits of congelation, 

 and the habitat of lichens and other Siberian plants, exclusively by the Pinus 

 uncinjita, the most interesting tree of these regions. In descending, on the 

 southern side, the Pinus sylvestris is again met with amongst the uncinata; 

 and, considerably lower, another species, first described by La Peyrouse, as the 

 P. Laricio, but, in the supplement to his flora of the range, as P. pyrenaica, a 

 name most improperly applied to a tree which scarcely belongs to it, but is 

 placed on its southern foot. This species is first met with below the Pena de 

 Ventimilla, a magnificent gorge, about three leagues lower down than Venasque, 

 in Aragon, and extends to the neighbourhood of Campo, where it forms ex- 

 tensive forests, covering the district between the Cinca and the Essera, which 

 are the main streams of the south side of the High Pyrenees, and are fed 

 from the glaciers of Mont Perdu and the Maladetta. This habitat is a tem- 

 perate and dry region, at a moderate elevation above the plains of Lower 

 Aragon. 



" This section must be understood to be carried over the fianks., or sides, of 

 the chain, and not as following the gorges or sinuosities of the water courses, 

 which afford a regular but somewhat different succession, including the lime, 

 elm, beech, oaks, alder, birch, mountain ash, various salices, and other shrubs, 

 amongst which is the beautiful (Sambucus racemosa, an elder with clusters of 

 bright scarlet berries, like bunches of grapes.; the yew and holly, which are 

 found in the beech region near Bagneres de Luchon ; and the box, which occurs 

 in tolerable quantity in ascending to Gavarnie. In the high valleys, the last 

 trees and shrubs correspond with those of the north of England, and above 

 them, where it has not been destroyed, is invariably found the Pinus uncinata. 

 The once magnificent beech forests of Bagneres de Luchon, the destruction of 

 which commenced before the revolution, and was deplored by Arthur Young, 

 no longer exist but in the form of copse, in which that tree is of no value. 



" The principal forests of the silver fir (Picea pectinata) now remaining are 

 in the country between the two Bagneres, in the Spanish valley of Aran, and 



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