44 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
come the returning summer. Many 
such storm-scarred trees are to be seen 
in the higher Alps — the valleys of Aoste, 
of Valais, and the Grisons, and espe- 
cially upon the southern slope of the 
Pennine Alps — old trees with their 
branches torn to shreds and their tops 
splintered, yet sound and vigorous at 
heart, disdaining to give up the struggle 
so long as summer gives time to restore 
the winter's losses. Seen in bright moon- 
light, thrown into relief against a clear 
sky or the snowy glaciers, there is some- 
thing which charms us in these patri- 
archal trees, a lesson of quenchless hope 
with its long- sustained endeavour, of a 
spirit that never knows when it is 
beaten. In the depths of the Valais 
are many fine old trees standing alone 
in the summer pasture-land and giving 
shelter year after year to bands of shep- 
herds with their flocks. Upon the Alps 
of Civiez, in the deep Vallon de Nen- 
daz, and above Iserable, such veterans 
may be seen, familiar to many genera- 
tions of the hardy mountaineers, who I 
every summer make their cheese and 
their butter in the noontide shade of 
their vast limbs, and sleep in the bran- 
ches or upon the ground under the 
same protecting canopy. Trees loo 
feet high are not uncommon. The 
famous Larch of Blitzingen in the Haut 
Valais, though partly shattered by light- 
ning upon several occasions, still ex- 
ceeds 90 feet in height, with a girth 
of 26 feet just above the ground : its 
age has been estimated at 500 years. 
Nor is this age at all exceptional, for 
there are many older trees than this, 
instanced by the vast trunk cut in the 
Area. 
Valais and shown at Geneva in 1896, 
during the Swiss National Exhibition, 
its age being over 900 years. The 
march of the centuries was traced upon 
this solid disk by little flags stuck in 
the woody layers corresponding with 
contemporary great events, from the 
year 1 2 9 1 , which saw the dawn of the 
Swiss Federation, to 13 15 with its 
battle of Morgarten, and so on through 
the national history to the present time. 
This historical tree is still preserved in 
the Swiss Federal Museum. 
The Larch covers a vast area 
among the Alps, touching 
here and there the Chestnuts of the 
Mediterranean region where they creep 
upwards from the plains, as alongside 
the railway between St Maurice and 
Martigny (Valais), where the sylva of 
the north joins hands with that of the 
south. Further west, and south, it be- 
comes rare and dies away in the Jura, 
the Vosges, and the Basses Alpes. Its 
limit of altitude is about 7000 feet, or 
a little more upon the southern slopes 
of the Alps. Though often supposed 
to be impatient of chalk this is not the 
case, provided the situation be open and 
well-drained. The finest Larch forests 
are seen in the Valais, the Grisons, and 
the Tyrol, but commonly mingled with 
other trees upon the lower slopes and 
with the Swiss Pine above, forming 
woods of beautiful contrast from the 
great difference in aspect and character 
of these two great trees of Switzerland. 
It is less often found alone. 
The largest forests of pure 
Largest forests. _ ° .1 
Larch occur m the moun- 
tains of Haut Valais in the valleys of Saas 
