26 MODERN POEEST ECONOMY. 



' Of the forests that Vibius Sequester cites as the most 

 extensive of Italy, that of Sila, in Bruttium, is the only 

 one which has escaped destruction, thanks to the special 

 protection with which it has long been surrounded. Strabo 

 tells us that it occupied an extent of 700 stadia, in the 

 present day, though occupying an ai'ea of considerably 

 smaller dimensions, it yet enjoys a notable importance, and 

 is above all renowned for the magnificent pines which rise 

 upon its slopes to a height of 120 or 130 feet. In Basili- 

 cate, the fine forests of oaks, which Zeuvie points out in 

 the environs of Lago -Negro, seem to be the remains of 

 the forest of Angitia, in Lucania, which Virgil has cele- 

 brated, and which had doubtless given its name to that 

 province (Lucania, from Lucas.) The forest of Garganus, 

 so vast in antiquity, offers now only meagre thickets. 



' The forest of Vulsinia exists still in part in the nemoral 

 lines which run over the mountains comprised between 

 the lake of Bolsena and the Tiber, and which is attached 

 to the last remains of the Ciminian Forest which are met 

 with from the Ciminie di Loriana to Tolfa. It is there 

 that the evergreen-oak attains astonishing dimensions. 

 The heights of the Apennines, in the centre of Italy, 

 although abodes more protected from, spoliation, have 

 been, however, remarkably stripped. Targioni Tozzetti 

 has signalised the disappearance of a great part of the 

 forests which formerly covered the mountains of the 

 province Lunigiana. The great plain of the Po is com- 

 pletely divested of forests ; there is not a single conifera 

 in it. Lastly, the clearance has advanced as far as the 

 reverse of the chain of the Alps which separate Switzer- 

 land from Italy, and was remarked thirty years ago in the 

 valley of Aoste. 



' Spain has been less fortunate, again, than Italy. The 

 working of the mines from remote antiquity, and the 

 careless improvidence of the ,Ca,stilian, have hastened the 

 destruction of the arborescent kinds. The centre of the 

 peninsula is now almost totally deprived of trees. A few 



