ABIES EXCELSA. 
«ri 
9 
“The Abies excelsa is very rare in the French Pyrenees. M. Massot (Compt. Rend. Acad. Sc., 1843, 2d ser., p. 756) does not mention it 
in his table of limits. Mr Willkomm (Plora 1852, p. 319) says that it is abundant on the southern slope of the Central Pyrenees, between 4000 
and 5000 feet (1299 and 1624 metres). M. Bossier does not mention it as found in the mountains of Andalusia. 
“On the southern slope of the Simplon M. de Cesati (Not. Civ. Sul. Lomb., in the Table) indicates the limit at 1900 metres. We still meet 
with it at 1200 feet (389 metres) on the Euganean hills, of the province of Padua (Rua cited by Schouw, Ann. Sc. Nat., 2d ser., iii. 239), but so 
trifling a height as that cannot be regarded as a limit. In the Munsterthal, canton of the Grisons, on the southern slope of the Alps, the limit is 
6500 feet (2111 metres) according to M. Heer (Flora 1844, p. 629). The species is not found in the chain of the Apennines (Schouw, id.) nor in 
Sicily (Guss. Syn.) M. Grisebach does not indicate it in Turkey in Europe (Spicil. FI. Rumel). The supposed Abies of Siberia is the Picea 
obovata (Ledeb. FI. Alt., iv. 201). Neither does the Abies excelsa grow (naturally) in the British Isles.” 
He gives the limits of altitude in summary as follows :— 
Maximum 
Mean 
Minimum 
Maximum 
Mean 
Minimum 
Metres. 
Metres. 
Metres. 
Metres. 
Metres. 
Metres. 
Mountains of Silesia . 
1300 
I IOO 
900 
Central Switzerland . 
1884 
1726 
1657 
Carpathian Mountains . 
i 5 2 7 
1494 
I462 
Western „ (Berne, Valais)... 
10 
00 
1675 
1545 j 
Bavarian Alps . 
1700 
16? x 
1546 
Italian Alps . 
2 I 11 
I9OO 
x w - 0 
Eastern Switzerland north of the 
Mont Ventoux'""—north side. 
... 
1720 
... 
Alps. 
... 
1880 
Spanish Pyrenees . 
... 
1624 
... 
These are fahls relating to this species, and as such proper to be recorded in any account of it; but 
we cannot adopt M. De Candolle’s conclusions founded upon them as to the degree of height and other 
conditions necessary for the growth of this species at the different heights mentioned, and its limitation to 
them. He acknowledges that he is without a number of indispensable data for the construction of his 
own scheme; and his attempt to ascertain the conditions which determine its limits of growth is at 
best, therefore, even supposing all his data supplied, only one of approximation. All that has been 
done by his calculations, as he himself says, is to establish that there does exist a relation 
between the amount of heat (and, of course, of other elements too) at the different limits in the north, 
and on the mountains. “ That relation varies little in supposing 6° or 5 0 or 7 0 as the minimum. The 
almost indefinite duration of light during the summer under the 67th degree of latitude produces an 
extraordinary effedl. The Abies excelsa contents itself, when supplied with that condition, with an 
amount of heat in the shade inferior to that which it requires in Silesia at 1300 feet of elevation. 
Nevertheless, the effedt does not equal that obtained at about 2000 metres on the Alps. 
There is, however, some other common element at work besides heat, which affeds equally great 
elevations and very northerly localities, as is shewn by the rapid ripening of fruits in both. 
In his “ Lachesis Lapponica,” on the 2d of July, Linnmus records that beautiful corn (barley or rye), 
which had been sown on the 25th and 26th of May, had shot up so high as to be laid in some places 
by the rain, and on the 28th of July harvest commenced in Lulean Lapland. The corn then cutting, 
thouoff sown but a few days before midsummer, was, nevertheless, quite ripe. Thus, it appears that 
corn (barley) springs up and ripens at this place in the space of sixty days. 
In like manner we learn from Hooker (“ Sikkim Rhododendrons”) that in the Sikkim Himmalayas 
there is a due proportion preserved between the time which each plant takes to flower and mature its 
seeds, and that which nature has to give it. As we ascend the mountains, of course the higher we go 
the less time have the plants in which to ripen their fruit; for while at the base of the mountain all is 
basking in sunshine, the higher portions are still covered with snow. Dr Hooker divided the slopes of 
the Himmalayas into four transverse zones, and he found that in each of these zones there was 
a difference of two months between the time taken by the Rhododendrons (and of course the provision 
would not be confined to them) to mature their seeds. The plants in each zone flower a month earlier 
* a lf Mont Ventoux had a more considerable development, we should probably see the Spruce rise here and there higher on it. I have 
considered on this account the limit as mean and not maximum. It might even be that it was the minimum that could bear the climate/ 
[ 24 ] 
E 
than 
