CONTFERJE. 271 



Naturalised in the Poole l)asii). Formerly a native of Ireland, and 

 possibly a few plants still exist in the ncjc^hbourhood of Tarbert, 

 Kerry. 



[England,] Ireland (?). Tree. Kurly Summer. 



A sturdy tree, with reddish-piceous rather even l)ark in l:i\ei-like 

 flakes. ^ Branches very stout, much more so than in the Scotcli tir, 

 and with larger scars, with the reflexed points (as long as they 

 remain) much more prominent. Leaves 3 to 8 inches long, thicker 

 and more deeply channeled than in P. sylvestris, surnmnded l^y 

 reddisli ash-coloured scales, the margins bound together by numerous 

 slender filaments. Cones 4 to G inches long, liver-colour; escutcheon 

 of the largest scales about an inch across the transverse diameter 

 by 1^ across that in a hue with the longitudinal axis of the cone. 

 Seeds, including the wing, about 1^ inch long; the solid part fuscous, 

 and nearly i inch long. 



I am hidebted to Dr. Falls, of Bournemouth, for fresh specimens of 

 the plant, which is completely naturalised in that neighbourhood. 



Cluster Pine. 



French, Fin mar'dlme. 



This is a beautiful tree, with much longer and brighter coloured leaves than tlie 

 Scotch pine, and with larger cones arranged in clusters around the brandies, and the 

 scales ending in a rigid point. It gi'ows best in deep loose soils, throwing down long 

 tap roots that take hold even in the lightest soils, so that it can flourish even in the 

 drifting sands of the sea-shore. Great use has been made of it in France in covering 

 immense districts of barren sands. Around the Bay of Biscay large plantations of 

 this pine have been formed to protect the land from the drifting sand which threatened 

 to convert it into a desert. The downs around the Gulf of Gascony were at one time 

 mere sandy wastes covering 300 square miles. Bremontier compared this immense 

 surface to a sea which, when agitated to fury by a tempest of wind, overwhelmed 

 everything in its neighbourhood. By sowing this tract of sand with the seeds of the 

 pinaster mixed with those of the common broom, its whole nature has been cliangcd. 

 The seeds were sown behind rows of hurdles, and the broom, growing up quickly, 

 protects the 3'oung pines from being rooted up or smothered by the sand. In 1811 a 

 Commission appointed by the French Government made a report on the downs, and 

 announced that about 12,500 acres of downs had been covered -ivith thriving planta- 

 tions, constituting the principal riches of the inhabitants, who arc almost entirely 

 supported by the preparation of resin and tar from the pinaster forests. Though the 

 wood of the pinaster is soft and not of long duration, it is employed in the marine 

 arsenal at Toulon for the outer cases of all the packages which are put on board 

 vessels, and principally for the piles and props which are used for sustaining tlie 

 frames of vessels while they are being constructed. In Bordeaux and in Provence 

 it is employed for the common kinds of carpentry, for packing-boxes, and for fuel, but 

 the most valuable purposes to which the tree is applied is the production of tar, resin, 

 and lampblack. The manufacture and collecting of these substances forms a very 

 active business in climates where the trees attain perfection. In Britjiin it would not 

 be profitable to attempt it, as our summers are not sufficiently hot to produce the 



