conifer;e. 2G5 



naturalised in sandy and gravelly districts in England; in Surrey, and 

 more especially in the Poole basin. 



[England,] Scotland, Ireland (?). Tree. Early Summer. 



A tall tree, pyramidal when youn.rr, when old with a flat-topped 

 spreaduighead. Bark greyish-red, at length fissured, and finally c'.sily 

 breakmg ofF in flakes. Ultimate branches rather slender, reddish 

 ash-coloured, tortuous. Leaves very numerous, persistent, 1 to 3 

 inches long, very slightly glaucous, the pair in eacli fascicle c'-nvi-loped 

 at the base m numerous scarious scales with lilanientous-laciniatc 

 margins. Male catkins about J- inch long, aggregated in a spike, 

 terminated by a bud, which grows out into' a barren shoot. Mature 

 cones^ 1 to 1^ inch long in the wild specimens of the Mar Forest, 

 greenish ash-colour, at length ash-colour, with rather few scales, which 

 increase in length towards the apex ; escutcheon of the lai-gest scales 

 little more than i inch across each diagonal. Seeds, including tlie 

 wing, about ^ inch long. 



Scotch Fir. 



French, Pin sauvage. German, Ktpfer, Fohre. 

 This fine tree is the British representative of a large group of plants, and is second 

 in utility only to the oak. It grows, under favourable circumstances, to A great size, 

 attaining a height of fi'om seventy to a hundred feet, the trunk having a diameter of 

 four or five feet. There are but few of these gigantic pines now left standing in the 

 Highland forests in which they grew ; most of them have been felled of late years 

 for their valuable timber. One of the most extensive woods in the island, called the 

 Forest of Glenmore, belonging to the Duke of Richmond, was cut down in the early 

 part of the present century, and sold for 10,000Z. Of this timber forty-one ships 

 were built at the mouth of the Spey, of an aggi'egate burden of ninteen thousand tons. 

 A plank cut from one of the finest trees in this noble forest, measured five feet five 

 inches in diameter. The soil in the Highland forests is found to be of very different 

 qualities, which regulates the quality of the timber. The richest ground produces 

 the largest trees, consequently not such fine-grained wood as in those trees grown on 

 sandy and poorer soil. The Scotch pine or fir generally reaches its full growth in 

 from 150 to 250 years : after that period it becomes decayed ; and in soils unsuited 

 to its growth ceases to iiacrease at a much earlier period. The most extensive forest in 

 Scotland was the Rothiemurchus Forest, containing above sixteen square miles. It was 

 united with the Forest of Glenmore, so as to form one continuous forest; but the high 

 price of timber hastened its destiniction, and after yielding a handsome revenue to its 

 owner, there are now but few trees left where once some of the most magnificent 

 specimens of the pine grew. The Braemar and Invercauld Forests still stand almost 

 entire, and some splendid trees are to be found in them. Sir. T. D. Lauder says, " It 

 is curious to observe in the Rotliiemurchus Forest, and in all others, how the work of 

 renovation goes on. The young seedlings come up as thick as they do in tlie 

 nurseryman's seed-beds, and in the same relative degi-ee of thickness do they continue 

 to grow, till they are old enough to be cut down. The competition wliich takes 

 place between the adjacent plants creates a rivalry that increases their upward 

 growth ; whilst the exclusion of the air prevents the formation of lateral branches, or 

 destroys them soon after they are formed. Thus nature produces by far the most 

 VOL. VIII. M M 



