of Calabria, gives five plates, reproductions from photographs, of the Calabrian forests, and a plate showing the variation in the cones; but he has added little to our knowledge of these interesting forests in his short description of them. He states that the finest one is the State forest of Gallipano. (A.H.)
As I could find no account of this tree in its native country, and it was then little known in England; from the information I received from Signor Siemoni, chief of the Forest Department at Rome, I visited Cosenza, a town in Calabria, in April 1903. Here I was kindly received by Signor Carlo Pagliano, Inspector of Forests, who directed me to a village called Spezzano Grande, two hours’ drive from Cosenza, from where I rode with Signor D. Greco, the sub-inspector, to the Sila Mountains, on which the largest forests of this tree now exist. The snow was still lying on the pass at about 4800 feet, but on the plateau beyond this it had melted except in shaded places. The forest is composed mainly of pine, here called Pino della Sila, Pino Rosso, or Pino Butello, mixed with beech in some places; but the forest has been considerably diminished by felling in former times, when the dockyards of Naples drew a large part of their timber from this district. The inspector told me that the only place he knew of where virgin forest of this tree still remained, was on a mountain called Femina Morte in the forest of Carigleone, in the district of Cattanzaro, 60 to 70 kilometres south-east of Cosenza. The average size of the trees which | saw being cut for the sawmill was not above 80 to 90 feet by 6 to 8 feet in girth, and smaller where they grew densely. These trees were 80 to go years old, and the heartwood, 10 inches in diameter, was reddish. In places where fire and cattle had not destroyed them, the natural reproduction was very good, and the seedlings when once established were making 2 to 3 feet of growth every year. The trees grew best in a south aspect on a soil which appeared to be decomposed granite, and, as far as I could learn, there is no limestone in this district. On my way back I visited Potenza in the Basilicata, whence, according to M. de Vilmorin’s information, the seeds of the tree originally were introduced ; but if the tree ever existed in the district, I could hear nothing of it.
Austrian Pine.—The Austrian pine has been the subject of a monograph by Prof. A. von Seckendorff! which gives very elaborate details of its literature, economy, and distribution in Austria, with maps and illustrations of remarkable trees in various places, which should be consulted by those who wish to know more than the brief résumé which I give. It occurs as a wild tree abundantly only in Lower Austria in an area extending from Médling, near Vienna, south to near Pitten and south-west to Reichenrau, especially on the Alpine chalk formation, and attains an elevation of about 4ooo feet. It attains a very great age, the rings of one felled near Stixenstein showing no less than 584 years, though the tree was only 65 feet high and about 6 feet in girth. In very rocky situations it grows so slowly that a tree near Mehadia was 270 years old, with a trunk only 8 feet high and about a foot in girth at the base.
Among the trees most remarkable for size may be mentioned a splendid tree at Vostenhofer (fig. ii. of Seckendorff) which is about 75 feet high and 21 feet in girth.
1 Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Schwarzföhre (Vienna, 1881).
