CHAP. 111. 



CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 



135 



Arbres de PAmerique, 30 ; but, according to the Botmvicon GalUcum, they are 34. 

 If we add to the indigenous woody plants of France those which are culti- 

 vated or doubtful, the total ligneous flora of that country will be above 580. 

 If to this number we add the 528 trees and shrubs of North America (see 

 p. 126.), all of -which will grow in France, it will give a total ligneous flora to 

 that country of above 1100 species; which, considering that France possesses 

 in her botanic gardens or nurseries all, or nearly all, the trees cultivated in the 

 open air in Britain, is probably as near the truth as the present state of our 

 catalogues will admit of our arri\ang at. In the above enumeration of the 

 woody plants of France, we have, as in the case of the enumeration of the 

 woody plants of the British Islands (p. 27.), included all the under-shrubs, 

 and also all those reputed species which we believe to be mere varieties. We 

 have included the under-shrubs, because it is diflicult to draw a line of sepa- 

 ration between those which might practically be considered as herbaceous 

 plants, though botanically they are sufFruticose ; and because, in a state of 

 culture, some of these sufFruticose plants attain such ample dimensions, 

 and such a ligneous texture, as to assume quite a shrubby character ; for ex- 

 ample, -Euphorbia Characias in Britain (p. 29.), and /beris saxatilis in France 

 (p. 132.). The first is seldom above 2 ft. high, in its native habitat in woods; 

 and the second is seldom above 6 in. high, on rocks and in gravelly soil : but 

 in dry deep garden ground the euphorbia will, in the course of a few years, 

 form a bush between 3 ft. and -i ft. high ; and the iberis a mass above half 

 that height. We have inserted the names of what we consider only varieties, 

 because we have no doubt that, in most cases, they are plants tolerably dis- 

 tinct; because it is impossible to be quite certain of what are species and what 

 varieties, without comparing them in different stages of their growth, and 

 grown in the same soil, situation, and climate ; and because we do not wish 

 to set up our own opinion in this matter as absolute. 



In an article by Professor Thouin, published in the Memoires cV AgriciiHure 

 for the year 1786, it is stated that France then possessed about 84 different 

 species of trees, of which 24 were of the first rank in point of size, or ex- 

 ceeding 100 ft. in height ; 16 of the second rank, or exceeding 60 ft. in height; 

 and the remainder of the third rank, or exceeding 30 ft. in height. The names 

 of these trees, and their arrangement according to the heights they attain, will 

 be found in the work last quoted, and also in the Jsfouveau Cours Complet 

 cf Agriculture, edit. 1821, art. Arbre. Deleuze states that France contains 

 about 250 species of trees, of which more than three fourths are of foreign 

 origin. (^Annales du Museum, torn. iii. p. 191.) 



Ample as is the ligneous flora of France, it might be doubled by adding to 

 it the trees and shrubs of Australia, of the mountainous regions of Asia, and 

 of Mexico, Chili, and Peru. We do not speak of the whole of the trees and 

 shrubs of these countries, because the whole are not yet known, but only of 

 those that have been already introduced into Britain, and are treated by us as 

 green-house plants; all of which would succeed in the open air of the southern 

 provmces of France. Were the total number of ligneous species from these 

 countries introduced, the number of trees and shrubs now in France would, 

 in all probability, be quadrupled. 



But though the ligneous flora of France is so much more extensive than 

 that of Britain, yet it is far from being so equally spread over the country. 

 Paris is considerably to the south of London, and yet there are above fifty 

 species of evergreen trees and shrubs which are to be found in the open air 

 in the environs of the latter city, which are not to be found in those of the 

 former. We assert this from a comparison between a list of the trees and 

 shrubs now (1835) growing in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, furnished to 

 us by Professor Mirbel, and the list which we have seen iu MS. of the trees 

 and shrubs now in the garden of the Horticultural Society of London. No 

 part of France is so far north as Edinburgh ; yet, while the cedar of Lebanon 

 attains a large size far to the north of that citj', and even in the Highlands 

 of Scotland, it is killed during severe v/inters at Strasburg and throughout 



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