THE 



M §Oi©E 9 



NOVEMBER, 1858. 



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INES, cedars, firs, and larches, take the lead 

 in the noblest family of ornamental trees we 

 have, and almost every climate on the face 

 of the earth, has contributed to our parks 

 and gardens fine forms of coniferous vegeta- 

 tion. The older species of pinus, abies, and 

 taxus, have an European reputation, both as 

 regards their numerous uses in the arts, and 

 the special tone they give to scenes in which 

 they form conspicuous features, as well as for 

 their association with pre-historic events in 

 an age when the vegetation of this country, 

 and many parts of Europe, consisted mainly 

 of them. Over vast portions of Scandinavia, 

 Germany, and Italy at the present day, as for 

 centuries past, pines and firs are the most 

 conspicuous features of the scenery. We cannot call to mind any of the 

 picturesque associations of the Western continent without more or less 

 connecting them with the " pine woods," and many of the brightest pages 

 of the American novelists and poets, are steeped in the odours of burning 

 pine knots, as well as lighted by the sunshine of the boundless prairies. 

 North America possesses, indeed, the most extensive pine forests in the 

 world ; the " pine barrens " extend in some districts, over a linear space 

 of from 300 to 500 miles, and, as in some parts of the western continent, 

 huge thistles are the only objects on which the eye can rest, when com- 

 manding from an eminence the vast panorama of rolling plains, so in others 

 an ocean of pines stretches away on all sides without a single break, and 

 hems in the horizon with a continuous black line of the most sombre 

 vegetation. In stature and majesty, too, the coniferous vegetation of 

 America is unequalled ; and since we have become familiar with the 

 scenery and products of that extraordinary country, California, we have 

 ceased to be amazed on hearing of trees 300 feet high, occurring not as 

 rare examples of individual growth, but congregated in vast belts of 



NO. XI. — VOL. I. M 



