GENUS PINUS. 101 



under the name of the red pine ; but in this country the 

 lasting properties of home-grown wood have not yet been 

 satisfactorily tested. 



P. rig^ida, Miller. American Pitch Pine. (^Synonyms : 

 — P. Loddigesii, Loudon ; P. Tceda rigzda, Solander.) North 

 America. 1759. — A highly ornamental and useful conifer in this 

 country, and one that is singularly devoid of the stiffness and 

 formality for which many species are so remarkable. The 

 outline of the tree as generally seen in England, when allowed 

 room for development, is somewhat after the style of our 

 native species, the branches being arranged in no regular way, 

 some assuming a spreading and others a pendulous mode of 

 growth, and thus showing off the warm and pleasantly tinted 

 bark. The leaves are arranged three in a sheath, are from 

 3| inches to 4 inches long, stiffish, and rich green in colour. 

 In this country there are considerable differences in the length 

 and colour of foliage in different trees, due mainly, I 

 have noticed, to the soil and situation in which the particular 

 specimens are growing. The cones, which are produced in 

 groups of all numbers up to seven and eight, are 3 inches 

 long by i,V inches wide, and with the scales terminating in 

 small sharp-hooked spines. The tree is useful for growing on 

 poor sandy or gravelly soils where only a very limited number 

 of species could subsist. 



P. Sabiniana, Michaux. California. — This species 

 can hardly be said to be quite hardy, the healthiest and best 

 grown specimens occurring either in Ireland or on the south 

 or west coast of England. It is a beautiful tree, but wears 

 a bare and naked appearance, from the fact of the foliage 

 being mostly in tufts at the branch tips. The peculiarly 

 graceful manner in which the tufts of foliage are arranged 

 rarely fails to attract notice, for they grow almost upright for 

 several inches, and then with the easiest grace fall backwards 

 and outwards almost in a circle from the point where they 

 originated, and for sometimes 10 inches in length. This 

 imparts a weeping and airy nppearance to the tree that is by 

 no means readily explained, the foliage being of a rich bluish- 



