THE MOUNTAIN PINE. 1 3 



neighbours, might sing with the Psalmist, " They are brought 

 down and fallen : but we are risen, and stand upright." The 

 recovery of the Mountain Pine from snow is one of the 

 marvels of these woods. Even where trees of twenty years' 

 growth have been bowed to the ground (as in Figs. 5 and 8), 

 their wonderful toughness and elasticity enable them to stand 

 up again in spring little the worse. 



The Mountain Pine cleans its stem less readily than the Scots 

 pine, being distinctly less impatient of shade. It also retains its 

 needles longer, often eight and even nine years in the young 

 state, as against four or five for the Scots pine. It is perhaps 

 for this reason that new plantations of Mountain Pine make such 

 slow progress for several years on poor soils. In one, for instance 

 (Fig. 9), in the Clairee valley near Brian9on, on a poor gravel 

 almost destitute of vegetation, the Mountain Pine had taken 

 fourteen years to reach the height of 6 feet. During that time 

 hardly a vestige of humus can have been formed. During the 

 last eight years the progress has been much more rapid, and the 

 gravel is now hidden under 3 inches of dark humus-soil, which 

 bears a plentiful crop of seedlings. In spite of its persistent 

 foliage, the crown of the Upright Mountain Pine is never dense, 

 because the growth of the side branches is slow, and consists, 

 for the most part, of a simple extension of the main axis without 

 side shoots. For the afforestation of poor soils, as in the 

 Cevennes or Montagne Noir, or in plantations for the restraint 

 of torrents in the higher valleys of the Alps and Pyrenees, the 

 Mountain Pine has quite replaced the Scots pine in the estima- 

 tion of French foresters. At Brian^-on, for instance, Scots pine 

 is no longer grown in the nurseries. At Mont Louis the French 

 government have a seed-drying establishment on a large scale, 

 with store-rooms, and ovens and threshing machinery, which is 

 mainly devoted to the seed of the Upright Mountain Pine. The 

 same work is carried on at Brian9on. 



The Upright Mountain Pine yields a good timber, with red 

 heart-wood, tough, resinous and durable. In the barrack 

 buildings at Mont Louis, it survives in good condition from 

 the seventeenth century. The specific gravity, as tested in 

 Denmark, is higher than that of Scots pine, but lower than that 

 of larch. The timber is highly esteemed for building. It is well 

 adapted, on account of the abundance of resin, for the manu- 

 facture of charcoal, tar, and ligneous acid, but, not for the same 



