Pinus ^^37 



5000 ft., where Pinus sylvestris and Abies pectinata cease to grow, and is common 

 mixed with larch and spruce at about 6000 ft., assuming in this dense part of 

 the forest a narrow pyramidal form. Higher up, at about 7000 ft., it grows nearly 

 pure in groups, scattered amidst rhododendrons, where seedlings are numerous, and 

 is of a much more branching and picturesque habit, while far above on the rocky 

 crests up to 8000 ft. isolated and broken trees are visible on the sky line. The 

 largest specimens, which are at about 7000 ft., are of great girth, one tree which I 

 saw in 1904 measuring 5 ft. in diameter, and dividing at 8 ft. from the ground into 

 two stems. It is about 60 ft. high. Taller trees, up to 70 or even 80 ft., but of 

 lesser girth, occur at the lower levels. Still larger specimens are said to exist in 

 the forest of Arvieux in the same district. 



In Switzerland' the tree is usually called Ziirbel, Zirbe, or Arve; but is named 

 Schember in the Engadine, which corresponds to the Italian name zembra or zimbro. 

 The most extensive woods occur in the great central chain, as in the Pennine Alps 

 and in the Engadine, though the tree is nearly extinct in Tessin ; whilst smaller 

 woods and scattered trees are met with in the limestone Alps from Vaud and 

 Freibourg to Churfursten in St. Gall. From here the distribution extends through 

 the Bavarian Alps to Salzkammergut, whilst it is continued through the Tyrol in the 

 main chain to Gamstein, on the Styrian frontier, its most northern and eastern 

 station in the Alps. In the southern Alps the tree grows here and there from Mt. 

 Adamello in the Tyrol to Bleiberg in Carinthia and the Steiner Alps in Carniola. 

 Throughout the Alps P. Cembra is seen on all formations — granite, slate, lime- 

 stone, dolomite, etc. — but it thrives best and forms the largest woods on moist soils 

 containing a considerable amount of clay, and remains stunted on dry limestone. 



(A.H.) 



In the Swiss Alps it is becoming in most places a scarce tree,^ as the wood is in 

 great request for carving, and the seeds are mostly eaten by mice and birds. But in 

 the high Alps on the south side of the Valais many fine old trees may yet be seen. 



A very beautiful one is shown in Plate 275, which is reproduced from a nega- 

 tive lent me by M. Coaz, Chief Inspector of the Swiss Government Forests, and 

 forms plate xvi. of Les Arbres de la Suisse. It grows at Muotta da Celerina, near 

 Pontresina, on a formation of mica schist and syenite rocks, at an elevation of 2120 

 metres, and measures 15 to 16 metres high, with a girth of 4.20 metres. It is 

 divided into three principal stems, with many great branches, which extend to a 

 diameter of 1 6^ metres, and is surrounded by numerous seedlings, which often grow 

 from seeds dropped by the nutcracker {Nuci/raga caryocatactes). 



By far the best illustrations that I have seen of this tree in its native Alps are 

 a series of twelve plates (27 B to 36 B) in Vegetationsbilder 1 1 (1905), by Dr. L. Klein. 

 Of these the most remarkable is a tree broken off at a few feet up, where it measures 

 6f\ metres in girth, with eight ascending candelabra-like branches. This grows at 



■ A very complete account of this pine in Switzerland has lately been published by Dr. M. Rikli, Die Arve in der 

 Schweiz, pp. xl + 4S5, with 21 maps and 60 illustrations (Georg et Cie, Basel, 1909). A review of this important work is 

 given in Nature, Ixxxii. 399, figs, i, 2 (1910). 



^ This species, according to Kirchner, op. cit. 250, was formerly much more widely spread in the Alps and Carpathians 

 than it is at the present time. 



