CHAP. CXIII. 



CONIFEHTE. Fi NL'.S. 



2277 



it has been observed that the leaves incline more to- 

 wards the shoots which produce them during winter 

 than in summer, as if to prevent the snow from 

 lodging on them ; and this is said to be much more 

 conspicuously the case with the leaves of P. Cembra 

 than with those of any other species. The male 

 catkins are red, and appear at the base of the young 

 shoots. According to Lambert, the flowers have a 

 more beautiful appearance than in any other species 

 of pine, being of a bright purple ; and the unripe 

 full-grown cones, he says, have a bloom upon them 

 like that of a ripe Orleans plum. The tree is of 

 remarkably blow growth in every stage of its pro- 

 gress, more especially when young ; seldom advanc- 

 ing more, even in rich soils, than 1 ft. in a year 

 (though, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, as will 

 be hereafter noticed, it grows much faster),* but it 

 grows quicker when it becomes older. It is readily 

 known from all the other species of pines by its nar- 

 row, conical, compact form, and the shortness of its silvery leaves, which 

 form tufts at the extremities of the branches. In Englanti, it is a formal, 

 and we do not think it can be considered a handsome, tree : it presents 

 to the eye a multiplicity of tufts of leaves, piled up one above another, 

 of the same size, and equidistant; and every where of rather u dull green 

 colour. The uniformity 

 of shape is nowhere 

 broken, except at the 

 summit, where alone 

 the cones are pro- 

 duced ; and hence, as a 

 mass, it may be charac- 

 terised as formal and 

 monotonous, without 

 being grand. In proof 

 of this, we may refer to 

 a plate of this tree in 

 our last Volume. In 

 Siberia and Switzer- 

 land, trees such as those 

 mentioned by Pallas as 

 being 120 ft. in height, 

 have a much more 

 grand and picturesque 

 appearance ; and jig. 

 2192. is a portrait of 

 one of these trees. 

 The largest tree that 

 we know of in England 

 is the original plant 

 at Whitton, which, in 

 1837, after being 91 

 years planted, was only 

 50 ft. high, with a trunk 

 1 ft. 6 in. in diameter. 

 This tree bears cones 

 and ripens seeds every 

 year ; and, though it appears to have suffered from the soil round it having 

 been raised above a foot in height, yet it still continues to grow with vigour, 



7 H 4 



2192 



