CHAP. CXIII. CONi'fERTE. Pl^NUS. 2279 



in carving out of it numerous curious little figures of men and animals, 

 which they sell in the towns, and which have found their way all over 

 Europe. The wood is much used for wainscoting; having not only an 

 agreeable light brown appearance, but retaining its odour, according to 

 Kasthofer, for centuries. The kernel of the seed, in Dauphine, Villars 

 informs us, is eagerly sought after by a species of crow (Corvus Caryo- 

 catactes L.), which shows an almost incredible degree of skill in 

 breaking the hardest shells. In Switzerland, the seeds are used in some 

 places as food, and in others as an article of luxury ; and the shell 

 being very hard, and requiring some time and skill to separate it from 

 the kernel, the doing so forms an amusement for young persons in the 

 long winter evenings ; who, Kasthofer observes, show a degree of skill 

 in it that might vie with that of the squirrel. Tn some places in the 

 Tyrol, the seeds are bruised, and an oil obtained from them by expression. 

 So abundant is this oil in comparison with that produced by other seeds, 

 that, while a pound of flax seed yields only 2^ oz., 1 lb. of cembra seed 

 yields 5 oz. Cembra oil is used both as food, and for burning in lamps ; 

 but, as the breaking of the seeds requires a long time, it is generally deai'er 

 than most other oils : it has a very agreeable flavour when newly made, 

 but very soon becomes rancid. The shells of the kernels, steeped in any 

 kind of spirits, yield a fine red colour. In Siberia, the seeds of the 

 cembra are sometimes produced in immense quantities ; but in other sea- 

 sons there is scarcely any crop. In abundant years, thej' form, according 

 to Gmelin, almost the sole winter food of the peasantry. The seeds, both 

 in Siberia and Switzerland, are employed medicinally ; and Gmelin relates 

 a story of two captains of vessels, who were suffering dreadfully from the 

 scurvy, and whose crews had almost all died of the same disease, being 

 cured in a few days by eating abundantly of these seeds. In Britain, 

 P. Cembra can only be considered as an ornamental tree; and, though 

 we hold it to be scarcely possible for a pine to be otherwise than ornamental 

 (if it were for no other reason than its being an evergreen), yet we cannot 

 help, as we have already observed, considering the Cembran pine, when 

 compared with other species, as rather monotonous, both in form and co- 

 lour. The summit of the tree, however, and its purple cones, we acknow- 

 ledge to be truly beautiful. That we may not run the slightest risk of 

 injuring this tree, we may mention that Mr. Lambert, so far from enter- 

 taining the same opinions as we do respecting it, looks upon it as " one of 

 the handsomest trees of the whole genus." {Pin., ed. 2., i. p. 49.) 



Soil, Situation, Sfc. Though the Cembran pine, as we have seen, will grow 

 in the poorest soils, and in the most elevated and exposed situations, where 

 no other pine or fir will exist, yet it will not grow rapidly, except in a free soil, 

 somewhat deep, and with a dry subsoil. This is rendered evident from the 

 trees at Dropmore, which, though they cannot have been planted above 

 half the time of the trees at Whitton and at Kew, are above 40 ft. high, 

 with trunks from 1 ft. to 14 in. in diameter. The tree at Whitton is on very 

 moist soil, and that at Kew on very dry poor soil. The soil at Dropmore is 

 also dry, but it is not so much exhausted by the roots of other trees as the 

 soil in the arboretum at Kew. All the varieties are propagated from imported 

 seeds, which may be sown in the same autumn in which they are received ; 

 or, perhaps, kept in a rot heap for a } ear, as they lie two winters and one 

 summer in the ground before germinating. The plants grow exceedingly slowly 

 for 4 or 3 years, seldom attaining in that period a greater height than from 

 1 ft. to 2 ft. When they are to be removed to any distance, they are best 

 kept in pots ; but, the roots being small and numerous, large plants of 

 P. Cembra transplant better (when they are not to be carried to too great a 

 distance) than most other species of Pinus. 



statistics. Pintis Cembra in England. At Syon, it is 30 ft. higli ; in the Mile End Nursery, it is 

 Uft. high ; at Walton on Thames, it is 35ft. high. In Surrey, at Farnham Castle, 35 years planted, 



