286 
FLORA AND SVLVA 
the Mountain Pine in like propor- 
tion. 
The scene changes, however, if, leav- 
ing the Valley of Graisivaudan, we 
follow the Romanche towards the 
south-east as far as La Grave. By degrees 
the Beech, and the Scotch and Spruce 
Firs, give place first to the Larch, 
which prevails in the forest of Freaux 
before reaching La Grave. During 
summer this forest clothes with its 
lovely tender green the rocky slopes 
from the bottom of the valley and the 
banks of the Romanche to the brink 
of the great Glacier de Mont de Laus, 
which caps the mountain and dissolves 
in cascades and fierce torrents, rush- 
ing headlong by every valley, clothed 
throughout with forest trees. But it 
is during September and October, when 
the first chills fall from the icy heights, 
that one should see the variations of 
colour through which this vast belt of 
vegetation passes, from the glowing 
copper and gleaming crimsons of the 
upper slopes to the unchanged green 
of the lower levels. The panorama is i 
as one vast palette upon which autumn 
has lavished all her colours. 
On leaving the forest of Freaux the 
Silver Fir and the Spruce become 
rarer, their place being taken by the 
Larch, which, upon the far side of the 
Col du Lautaret, as one descends the 
banks of the Gruisane, is mingled with 
Pinus iinc 'mata. This gains in import- 
ance until its true home is reached in 
the Valley of the Durance. It forms 
a tall straight stem with a close rising 
crown of verdure, and its timber is 
much valued. Greedy of sunlight— 
as are many Pine trees — it abounds in 
this sunny corner of the Alps, and with 
it appear various sun-loving shrubs 
in the Savin Primus brigantiaca and 
others characteristic at once of alpine 
and southern vegetation. The Valley 
of Ubaye, branching from that of the 
Durance towards the south-east, ex- 
tends to the Maritime Alps and the 
frontier of Italy. Amid these arid 
heights, unfavourable to the growth of 
grass or grain crops, the peasants are 
forced to seek food for their flocks in 
the forests. Early in the autumn the 
branches of the Willows, Poplars, Elms, 
Ash, and Hornbeam, are cut with their 
foliage and dried to serve as fodder dur- 
ing winter. This, beside weakening the 
trees, destroys the seed which would 
renew them, with the result that little 
by little all growth perish. A country 
formerly rich has been ruined by a long 
series of wars during the Middle Ages 
and the subsequent improvidence of 
the people. Once destroyed, these 
natural riches are slow to return, spite 
of the efforts made towards replant- 
ing by the forest administration, and 
much that has been done to check 
loss and ravage by the mountain tor- 
rents. 
The Ubaye flows in a narrow valley 
between mountains of an average height 
of 10,000 feet. The vine covers the 
sunniest slopes to a height of 3,000 
feet, and the Oak is found up to 4,600 
feet, but at that height only as low, 
isolated tufts in the most sheltered 
corners. On mounting the Ubaye the 
first important forests are those at 
Lauzet (2,900 feet), where the slopes 
