VINES AND CHESTNUTS.

209

the lower slopes of the mountains; and in some cases pene-trate deep into their recesses up the comparatively level bedsof the larger valleys. Thus the vine flourishes freely in theVal d’Aoste between the great ice-capped walls of the Graian and Pennine Alps , and, to the north of the latter chain,clothes the lower slopes on either side of the Rhone valley ,even penetrating the Visp-thal as far as Stalden (2,736 feet).In the neighbourhood of this village is probably its higheststation in Switzerland . On the southern slopes of the Alps,and in the Italian Tyrol, it may rise a little above this level;but it can rarely be said to thrive above 2,500 feet, and inmany places fails to reach it by several hundred feet.

The Spanish chestnut, in the same way, grows to nearly3000 feet on the Italian slopes, under favourable circumstances;and the walnut occupies about the same zone, perhaps risingslightly above it. The apple and pear are confined to muchthe same limits; but the cherry, especially a small black variety,flourishes much higher. I have eaten it from trees in the vil-lage of Claux, in the Val Louise (Dauphind), at a height ofabout 4000 feet. The oak is confined to much the same limitsas the chestnut; the lime advances rather beyond it. There isa very fine old tree in the village of Macugnaga, in the ValAnzasca, at a height of 4369 feet. The maple cannot growabove 5000 feet, but the aspen advances some 200 feet aboveit as a tree, and even higher than this as a shrub; while thebirch flourishes up to 6000 feet, and thrives as a shrub in someplaces almost up to the snow line.

The following interesting extract from Tschudi 1 gives thelimits of several trees in different localities (the heights arein Ffench feet; 1000 = 1066 English feet nearly: the tem-peratures are reduced to the Fahrenheit scale):

1 Let Alpes, p. 43. Some interesting details about the age and history ofseveral Swiss trees will be found in an article in the Conservateur Suisse, Vol. x.p. 333.

14