ON THE PINUS PINASTER OR CLUSTER PINE. 265 



many of the autliorities upon noraenclatnre, giving it a different 

 specific name. Probably no other Finns has so many synonyms. 

 No fewer than twelve distinct names are quoted in the vari- 

 ous systematic and descriptive accounts of the pine itself ; 

 while we can also reckon, amongst its four distinct varieties, 

 Pinus Pinaster Hamiltonii (Tenore) ; Pinus Pinaster Lemo- 

 niana (Loudon) ; Pinus Pinaster minor (Loudon) ; and Pinus 

 Pinaster variegata ; a list of twelve synonyms. This, as we 

 have already alluded to, is owing to the diversities in the 

 growth of the species, under various modifications of situation, 

 soil, climate, or altitude in different countries. It abounds in 

 the sandy flats along the lower ranges of the Appennines, and to 

 the north of these mountains. In upper Italy it is found at an 

 altitude of 3000 feet above sea-level. It extends its native haunts 

 to Spain and Portugal in the west, and all along the coast of 

 France bounding the Mediterranean, as far eastward as the 

 shores of Turkey. It has also been found in China, Japan, St 

 Helena, New Zealand, and New Holland ; but it is quite 

 possible that, as we have no very early record of its having been 

 observed in these Eastern latitudes, it may have been carried 

 thither from its European habitats, where it is much more 

 generally diffused, and attains to a greater size than it is found to 

 do in China or Japan. It has been found in isolated spots in 

 some of the northern provinces of India, although not to any 

 considerable extent, but of exactly such a type in every 

 botanical essential, as to class it as identical with the forms of P. 

 Pinaster, found in the habitats both of Europe and the far East. 

 It has been introduced into America, bat even with all 

 possible care, it is considered there exceedingly unsatisfactory, 

 and cannot be depended upon in the northern and middle states. 

 Indeed, the success of the Pinus Pinaster in any new locality is 

 dependent upon several considerations, which a recollectioD of 

 the conditions under which it is found in its native habitats 

 will at once explain. Although sufficiently hardy to withstand 

 the vicissitudes of the British climate, being of a species which 

 prefers a lower zone or altitude to that of its well-known con- 

 geners, the P. Larieio, P. austriaca, and P. sylvestris ; and 

 bearing with absolute impunity the salt-charged atmosphere of 

 the sea coast, it will be found that the Pinaster in this country 

 succeeds best in a situation exposed to a westerly or south- 

 westerly wind, in sandy soil, and by the sea coast, or at a low 

 altitude. Such a site is far more suited to its requirements for 

 successful growth than even a richer soil, if it be subjected to the 

 €okl easterly winds, which are so often chilly and frosty, and 

 consequently injurious in their effects to its foliage and young 

 shoots. In this respect, it will be at once seen that the Pinaster 

 is not so well adapted for universal or general propagation in 



