lO TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



2. The Mountain Pine. 



( With Five Plates.) 

 By Sir John Stirling-Maxwell, Bait. 



The Editor has asked me to contribute some notes on this 

 species, which certainly deserves the attention of any forester 

 who has to bring poor, high and exposed ground under forest. 



The classification of the Mountain Pine is still incomplete, 

 and presents difficulties into which these notes will not enter. 

 The botanical nomenclature will also be avoided, as it is in a 

 state of confusion, and presents more varieties than the tree 

 itself. 



From the forester's point of view there are three well-marked 

 varieties of the Mountain Pine, which I will call Upright, 

 Intermediate, and Dwarf. These are not mere sports, but 

 constant varieties, hailing from different countries, coming true 

 from seed, and, in fact, not less distinct than the Corsican, 

 Austrian, and Pyrenean varieties of Finns Laricio. 



1. The Upright Mountain Pine, known in France as Pin a 

 Crochets from its hooked cone scales (Fig. i), is a slender, 

 erect-growing tree with a single stem, which, under favourable 

 conditions, attains a height of 60 feet or more. It is the 

 ruling species in large forests at elevations of 4000 to 7000 

 feet in the Pyrenees and in the French Alps near Brian9on. 

 It is also found in small colonies in the Engadine and on the 

 moors of Southern Bohemia.^ 



2. The Intermediate form is a many-stemmed tree, which 

 does not grow more than half the height of the Upright variety. 

 Its shape is due to the rapid development of the side branches, 

 which turn upwards and grow as fast as the leader. This 

 is the variety commonly found in the mountains of Central 

 Europe and on the Bavarian moors. 



3. The Dwarf form is a creeping shrub not more than 6 feet 

 high. Its branches tend to lie flat on the ground, only turning 

 upwards at the extremities, and it has no leader. This variety 

 forms vast thickets in the Carpathians, and on the Erz and 

 Riesen mountains, which divide Bohemia from Saxony. It 

 has no silvicultural interest, and need not concern us further. 



1 P. E. Miiller, Tidsskriftfor Sko7<hritg, Co|5enhagen, 1887. 



