64 
Macgregor Skene . 
AN ECOLOGIST’S GARDEN. 
By Macgregor Skene, B.Sc. 
ITHIN the last thirty years or so a new conception has 
VV arisen of the uses to which a botanical garden may he put. 
The relations between the characters of plant, vegetation, and 
environment has been the object of a continually increasing volume 
of research, and this has impressed itself on botanical gardening. 
The development has followed two diverging paths. At the end of 
one is the magnificent new garden at Dahlern, near Berlin, which is 
due to the inspiration of Professor Engler. It is a collection of 
illustrations of the vegetation of different parts of the earth—is, in 
fact, a series of living “ Vegetationsbilder ”: and provides at the 
same time materials for anatomical or morphological study on 
phytogeographical lines. The other leads to numerous alpine 
gardens scattered through the mountains of southern Europe, from 
the Austrian Tyrol to the Cevennes. These aim at giving oppor¬ 
tunities for the exact ecological study of the organism. Among 
their number is the garden—or rather gardens—on Mount Aigoual, 
the second highest peak of the Cevennes. 
Though only eight years old this garden on the Aigoual has 
reached a high state of development, and as well from its unique 
position as for the example it affords of what can be accomplished 
with limited material by means of devotion and energy, it seems to 
be deserving of introduction to the British botanical world. 
The Aigoual is the dominant peak of the Southern Cevennes. 
Its geography may be most readily understood by imagining a 
horse-shoe of mountains with the limbs pointing eastward. The 
northern limb is the Grand Aigoual. At the eastern extremity it 
culminates in two peaks about three-quarters of a mile apart, and 
joined by a neck. The one to the east is the Pic de la Fajolle 
(5,083 feet), that to the west is the Aigoual (5,093 feet) on which is 
situated a meterological observatory. Westward the ridge slopes 
gently downwards for about two miles to the Col de la Sereyrede : 
the Col de la Sereyrede and the Col de Lesperou join the Aigoual 
to the southern limb of the horse-shoe—the Montagnes de Lesperou. 
The Col de la Sereyrede, it may be noted, is the watershed between 
the Atlantic and Mediterranean basins. Standing beside the 
forester’s house, which is situated there, one sees to the north the 
Bonheur flowing towards the Tarn and the Garonne, and to the 
south the Herault flowing to the Mediterranean. The Atlantic 
stream runs through an elevated valley, with gentle slopes and 
