640 General Notices. 



mistakes in selecting during the process of thinning, and no spaces are left 

 too open or too close. The evergreens, which require more or less care when 

 young, are more readily looked after, and their places supplied where neces- 

 sary in case of failure. The larch should be planted a year or two before 

 the evergreens, by which time the grass is grown, and affords a shelter and 

 protection against the destruction of game, &c. The trifling difference in the 

 shelter between the evergreen and deciduous species is more apparent than 

 real, and is more than compensated by the superior value of the larch thin- 

 nings, and the additional fertility imparted to the soil by the fall of the leaves. 

 By having only a definite number of evergreens, the landlord can afford to 

 have better sorts, and expend more care upon the rearing them. 



Phius pumUio. — The author had found the difficulty of obtaining information 

 respecting this curious tree so great, that if, from inspection of the beautiful 

 specimens at Dropmore, and in some other collections, he had not been satisfied 

 of its being a distinct species, he might, in the summary mode of compilers who 

 treat on trees they never saw in their nativeTorests,have set it down as a " moun- 

 tain variety " of some other species. All doubt, however, on the subject his 

 late tour in Upper Germany has completely enabled him to remove. He first 

 met with it, though sparingly, in Upper Styria. In the Saltzkammergut it is 

 abundant, though high up, and above the Scotch and spruce, which form the 

 mass of the forests in that beautiful region. By far the largest portion was 

 met with in the Bavarian Alps, which it inhabits from the base almost to the 

 summit, and in every sort of ground. An extensive swamp, or morass, 

 adjoining the Chiemsee, the principal lake of Bavaria, is covered with it ; and 

 the effect of its dwarf and even surface a few feet above the ground is curi- 

 ously contrasted with the lofty forests of spruce and Scotch fir which sur- 

 round the marsh'wherever the ground is sufficiently dry to bear them. Although 

 it flourishes in this strange locality, where no other fir or scarcely any other 

 tree can exist, marshy ground is by no means its only or favoured habitat. In 

 the neighbouring mountains, where it is extremely abundant, the author found 

 it at the base of the chain. In the dry gravelly beds of the torrent, it gradually 

 creeps up the arid limestone to the very summit of the range which separates 

 Bavaria and the Austrian Tyrol, living up to the very limits of trees. When 

 seen in these situations from below, it could not by the unpractised eye be 

 distinguished from furze or gorse. The peculiar form of this tree consists in 

 its having no regular leader. Immediately above the ground it divides into a 

 number of smaller stems and branches, which either sweep along the ground, 

 their extremities pointing upwards or rising at once at an angle of 30° to 45°, 

 accordingly as the neighbourhood or the locality has permitted it to expand . 

 Occasionally, and amongst countless thousands, the author did not see above 

 one or two examples of an attempt to grow straight, and throw up a single 

 stem ; but the failure of attaining size or elevation shows, in these instances, 

 the creeping and true habit of the tree. The height attained is rarely above 

 5 or 6 feet, the diameter of the largest trees being from 20 ft. to 25 ft., though 

 this size is rare ; and the appearance is so regular, that in looking over an ex- 

 tensive level planted with it, it is quite as even as the surface of a goi'se cover. 

 The foliage in form and colour resembles that of P. uncinata, but the leaves 

 are shorter, though standing out in the peculiarly rigid manner of that species. 

 The cones are small, dark-coloured, and differ from both P. sylvestris and P, 

 uncinata. From the localities it inhabits, it must be placed very high in the 

 series, by the side of P. Cembra and P. uncinata. The author was the more 

 particular in describing this singular species, in order to guard those who may 

 not have the opportunity of seeing it m sit7i, from confounding it, as so many 

 have done, with the stunted individuals of P. Cembra, P. sylvestris, and P. 

 uncinata, which are always found at the summit of their respective zones in 

 the high Alps and Pyrenees, and have been confounded under the general 

 name of pumilio. As to the economical uses of this tree, it is clear they 

 amount to very little, its wood being only used for inlaying furniture, such 

 as backs of chairs and the like. To those, however, who possess extensive 

 parks, by planting them 15 ft. apart, and taking care of them during their 



