2162 



ARBOUETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



r-AllT 111. 



noble specimen at Dunmore, which is con- 2049 



sidered to be the most picturesque tree in 



the Lowlands of Scotland, and of which fig. Height' 



2031. is a portrait after Strutt, to a scale TiuT " 



of 24 ft. to 1 in. The height of this tree was, 



in 1836, 67 ft. ; and the diameter of the trunk, 



at 1 ft. from the ground, 3 ft. 9 in. ; and it 



was estimated to contain nearly 300 ft. of 



timber. Among the finest specimens in the 



Highlands of Scotland are those in Strath- \s\ft. ^'~'''^^S3^hn. Branch 2 ftS 



spey, of a group of which /g. 2032., to a "' " " ' 



scale of 24 ft. to 1 in., is a portrait by W. A. 

 Nesfield, Esq. The tallest of these trees is 

 73 ft. high. 



The quality of the timber of the Scotch 

 pine, according to some, is altogether depen- | 

 dent on soil, climate, and slowness of growth ; \ 

 but, according to others, it depends jointly ; 

 on these circumstances, and on the kind of i 

 variety cultivated; and this is our opinion. ; 

 It is acknowledged, that the timber of the 

 Scotch pine, grown on rocky surfaces, or 

 where the soil is dry, sandy, or hazelly, is, i 

 in general, more resinous, and redder in co- i ^ ^, .^^ 



lour, than that of such as is grown on soils i ■■•'■*-•• 



of a clayey nature, boggy, or on chalk : but I 

 this is not always the case ; for an instance j 

 is given, in Lawson's Mamial, of " a planta- j 

 tion, recently cut down, which stood on the i 

 north side of the Perth and Dundee road, ''" 

 nearly 10 miles from the former, the seed of 

 which was, 70 or 80 years since, received 

 from the Forest of Mar ; and the timber, al- 

 though grown on a poor, damp, tenacious 

 clay, besides attaining to a great size, was 

 found equal in quality to that for which the 

 above natural forest is esteemed." {Ag. Man. 

 p. 320., note.) Scotch " pine timber," Sir 

 T. D. Lauder observes, " is best in the 

 colder situations. In the warmer regions, I — 



it contains a great deal of white, or sap, ' 



wood. At what time the sap wood is transformed into durable, or red, 

 wood, has not yet been determined by vegetable physiologists ; and, though 

 most writers believe that the ligneous matter is deposited in the second 

 year, we are disposed to doubt the fact. More than a dozen layers of sap 

 wood may be counted on some trees ; and, what is a very interesting ob- 

 servation, where trees have been much exposed to the mid-day sun, the whole 

 southern half of the tree is sometimes found to be little better than sap wood, 

 whilst the northern half may contain only a layer or two of it at the cir- 

 cumference." {Laud. Gilj)., i. p. 174.) 



The durability of the red timber of the Scotch pine was supposed, by the cele- 

 brated engineer, Brindlcy, to be as great as that of the oak ; and Dr. Smith, in his 

 Essay on the Production of Timber, in the Transactions of the Highland Society 

 of Scoltand,vo\. i. p. 163., says that he has seen some Scotch pine grown in the 

 North Highlands, which, when taken down after it had been 300 years in the 

 roof of an old castle, was as fresli and full of resin as newly imported timber 

 from Memel ; and that part of it was actually wrought up into new furniture. 



Gcographi/. P. sylvestris and its varieties arc indigenous throughout the 

 greater part of Euro[)e, from the Mediterranean on the south, to 70° n. lat. 



