Corn stops at 2,000 to 3,000 feet, though a little rye may be grown up to 5,000 feet in sunny places.  Fruit trees and beech trees stop at about 4,000 feet.  There is one beech tree above Davos about 5,500 feet above the sea, but it has never succeeded in topping the huge boulder which shelters it from the North.  The silver fir is healthy at 4,000 feet, but is seldom found much above that level, while the spruce or fir goes up to 7,000 feet and does best there.  Larches seem to thrive best at about 5,000-6,000 feet, but may be seen almost as high as the top of the Bernina Pass on the south side facing Italy.  The cembra pine, like a great cedar, is the finest tree in the Alps and does best at 6,000 feet to 7,000 feet.  It is also called the Arolla pine, because of the forests near that place.  In the Upper Engadine almost all the forests are of cembra and there is one splendid old tree known as the “Giant Tree” near upper tree level on Muottas Celerina.  Another group of veterans grows just below the Little Scheidegg on the Grindelwald side.  Many of these trees are said to be 600 or 700 years old and their wood is much used for panelling in Graubuenden.  It is recognized by the big dark knots.  The panels are usually formed of boards reversed so that the knots form a symmetrical pattern.  Larch is also used and is very red, while sycamore goes to the making of tables and chairs in the Buendner Stuebli.  Good examples of the modern use of these woods may be seen in the hotels, Vereina and Silvretta, at Klosters, while the museum at Zurich contains beautiful old panelled rooms from different districts.

Creeping down steep avalanche slopes above 5,000 feet we find Pinus montana, whose long branches form a tangle in which to catch one’s Ski tips.  Below 5,000 feet this pine will sometimes grow almost upright but never attains much height.  Alder may also be a trap for Skis on an avalanche slope where it creeps downhill and provides a very slippery surface for the snow.  I remember shooting down such a slope about 100 feet when the snow slipped with me in a safe place.

Along the rivers the alder grows into quite a fine tree, and if its catkins be picked at Christmas and are brought into the warm house, they soon blossom out and spread their green pollen over everything.  Rather a nice way of bringing a reminder of Spring into one’s Winter holiday.

Birch and mountain ash grow happily up to 6,000 feet on sheltered slopes but after 6,000 feet there are no deciduous trees, except the tiny creeping willows buried deep under the snow.

Juniper is the most ubiquitous shrub to be found, it seems to me.  You get its various types at sea level in Italy and on the top of mountains up to 8,000 feet when it pokes up through the snow beside the Alpine Rose or Rhododendron ferrugineum.