Capt. S. E. Widdrington on European Pines. 89 



greens, by which time the grass is grown, and affords a shelter 

 and protection against the destruction of game,, &c. The tri- 

 fling difference in the shelter between the evergreen and deci- 

 duous species is more apparent than real, and is more than 

 compensated by the superior value of the larch thinning and 

 the additional fertility imparted to the soil by the fall of the 

 spiculae. By having only a definite number of evergreens, 

 the landlord can afford to have better sorts, and expend more 

 care upon the rearing and looking after them. 



On Pinus Pumilio. 



I have found the difficulty of obtaining information respect- 

 ing this curious tree so great, that if, from the inspection of 

 the beautiful specimens at Dropmore and in some other col- 

 lections, I had not been quite satisfied of its being a distinct 

 species, I might have been incredulous, and in the words of 

 the schools, asked, " Quid est Pumilio ?" or in the summary 

 mode of writers and compilers who treat on trees they never 

 saw in their natural forests, set it down as a u mountain va- 

 riety" of some other species. All doubt however on the sub- 

 ject my late tour in Upper Germany has completely enabled 

 me to set aside, and more satisfactorily than I could possi- 

 bly have anticipated. I first met with it, though sparingly, 

 in Upper Styria. In the Saltzkammergut it is abundant, 

 though high up, and above the Scotch and spruce, which 

 form the mass of the forests in that beautiful region. By far 

 the largest portion was met with in the Bavarian Alps, which 

 it inhabits from the base almost to the summit, and in every 

 sort of ground ; an extensive swamp or morass adjoining the 

 Chiemsee, the principal lake of Bavaria, is covered with it, 

 and the effect of its dwarf and even surface a few feet above 

 the ground is curiously contrasted with the lofty forests of 

 spruce and Scotch fir which surround the marsh wherever the 

 ground is sufficiently dry to bear them. 



Although it flourishes in this strange locality, where no 

 other fir or scarcely any other tree can exist, marshy ground 

 is by no means its only or favoured habitat. In the neigh- 

 bouring mountains, where it is extremely abundant, I found 

 it at the base of the chain, in the dry gravelly beds of the tor- 

 rents, and it gradually creeps up the arid limestone to the 

 very summit of the range which separates Bavaria and the 

 Austrian Tyrol, living above its congeners of the forest and 

 to the very limits of arboreal vegetation. When seen in these 

 situations from below, it could not, by the unpractised eye, be 

 distinguished from furze or gorse. 



The peculiar form of this tree consists in its having no 



