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THE ALVIN E REGIONS.

“The walnut rises in the northern part of the Swiss Alps to amean level of 2500 feet, and a maximum of 2900 feet; the meantemperature being 45°; in the Central Alps, where the mean tem-perature is the same, it reaches 2700 feet, and as a maximum3600 feet; lastly, in the Southern Alps (Mont Blanc and MonteRosa), where the mean temperature is 44”, it rises to 3600 feet.The cherry-tree reaches a mean of 3500 feet in North Switzer-land, though some isolated plants grow even at 4580 feet; in theBernese Alps this limit mounts up to 3900 feet; in the Grisons it attains a maximum of 4500 feet; in the Valais of 4164 feet;in the Val de Saint Nicholas, the last cherry-trees occur aboveHerbrigen at 3965 feet. The beech grows in North Switzerlandat a mean altitude of 4200 feet; the mean annual temperaturebeing 39 4°, and in certain aspects it even rises up to 4800 feet.In the Bernese Alps the limit is from 3700 feet to 3900 feet;in Canton Tessin it is 4666 feet. In the Valais and the Grisons ,where the soil is formed of crystalline schists, beeches are veryrare; on Monte Rosa they reach 4500 feet.”

Of the coniferous trees, we may place first the larch (Abies larix ), which is also deciduous; it is very common in nearlyevery part of the Alps; large forests being almost wholly com-posed of it. It is particularly abundant in the Tarentaise andthe Engadine ; but in the former place has suffered much oflate years from a kind of blight. In 1864 I saw hundreds ofacres of forest, the trees of which were brown and apparentlydying. It grows freely up to about 6000 feet, and in somelocalities, such as the Engadine , as far as 6700 feet. Speakinggenerally, the zone of larch forests extends from 4000 to7000 feet. Like all the coniferous trees, it disappears rathersuddenly at the upper .limit, without any considerable fringe ofstunted growth. The traveller not unfrequently falls in withmagnificent specimens in the woods, giants rising to a heightof from 100 to 120 feet above the ground, with a diameter,measured about a yard from the soil, of four or five feet.