162 



HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY OF TREES. 



PART I. 



In the botanic garden, Zizyphus vulgaris, the pomegranate, and the fig, live 

 against walls, and ripen their fruits. The kolreuteria, the cork tree, Quercus 

 fastigiata, ./uglans/raxinifoha, and the ylrundo Donax, stand at Geneva, even 

 in the open country. Quercus fastigiata, in particular, which was introduced 

 by M. De Candolle about 1820, promises to become a great ornament to the 

 Swiss parks. The resemblance which this tree bears to the Lombardy poplar, 

 except that it has an oak leaf, gives it a very extraordinai-y degree of interest. 



If we search in Switzerland for trees remarkable for their antiquity or rarity, 

 we shall find several worthy of being mentioned here. We shall begin with 

 indigenous trees, and then proceed to those which are exotic. 



At Fi-ibourg, in the public square, there is a large lime, the branches of which 

 are supported by pieces of wood. This tree was planted on the day when the 

 victory was proclaimed of the Swiss over the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the 

 Rash, in the year 1476; and it is a monument admirably accordant with the 

 then feebleness of the Swiss republics, and the extreme simplicity of their man- 

 ners. In 1831, the trunk of this tree measured 13 ft. 9 in. in circumference. 



The tree of Trons, in the Grisons, is a monument of a similar nature : under 

 the shade of this tree, it is said that the deputies of the country swore to free 

 themselves from the yoke of their lords. This tree is celebrated in all the local 

 poems as being a lime, but the fact is, that it is a sycamore {A^cer Pseiido- 

 Platanus), the trunk of which is now 26 ft. 6 in, in circumference at 1ft. 6 in. from 

 the ground. We can hardly suppose that it could have been less than 100 

 years old, when it served as a placeof rendezvous for the conspirators, in which 

 case it must be now nearly 500 years old. In the Bitliotheque Universellc de 

 Geneve, for August, 1831, there is a letter from Colonel Augustus Bontemps, 

 in which it is mentioned, that the probable reason why this sycamore is called 

 a lime in the local poems is, that the German word " ahorn," which signifies a 

 sycamore, is very unpoetical, while that for a lime tree, " linde," is soft and 

 liquid ; and this made the former be rejected by the writers of the old ballads. 



At Zoffingen there are two lime trees, on the branches of which is placed a 

 plank in such a manner as to enable any one to walk from the one to the other; 

 and thus, people may not only walk, but even dance, upon the foliage of the 

 tree. In the village of Villai's-en-Morig, near Fribourg, there is a large lime, 

 which existed there long before the battle of Morat (which the tree at Fribourg 

 commemorates), and which is now of extraordinary dimensions. It was, ia 

 1831, 70 ft. high, and 36 ft. in circumference at 4 ft. from the ground, where it 

 divided into large and perfectly sound branches. It must be nearly 1000 years 

 old. (See De Candolle's Physiologie Vegetale, p. 987.) 



These are certainly the most remarkable trees in Switzerland, because they 

 are all linked, more or less, with the history of the country. They speak to 

 the imaginations of the people, and are connected, not only with the amuse- 

 ments of each generation, but with the victories that, in ancient times, secured 

 the independence of the Swiss. 



We shall now mention some trees which are interesting in a botanical point 

 of view. These are almost all found in the neighbourhood of Geneva, where 

 the Messrs. De Candolle, father and son, have taken care to measure them, in 

 oi'der to commence a series of exact observations on the growth of trees. 

 These two naturaUsts are aware, that, in order to calculate the age and pro- 

 ducts of old trees, we want data as to their growth after they have passed a 

 century or two of their existence ; and they have conceived the idea of making 

 a register of all the numerous measurements that they have taken, designating 

 exactly the local position of the trees. They mean to deposit this register in 

 some public establishment, in order that other botanists may, after them, con- 

 tinue the same kind of observations on the same trees durmg several centuries.* 



* The botanical reader is, no doubt, aware that Professor De Candolle was 

 the first to throw out the idea, that exogenous trees have no definite term 

 affixed to their existence, and, consequently, that there can be no limit to the 

 number of years that a dicotyledonous tree may live. (See Physiologie Vegetale, 

 vol. iii. p. 937—1022.) 



