140 DWAEF AND SLOW-GBOWINQ OONIFEES 



Buds. — Ovoid; acuminate; resinous; scales with long 

 points usually pressed together. 



Branchlets. — Thickly coated with shaggy brown pubes- 

 cence; pulvini prominent. 



Leaves. — In bundles of five; about IJ to 2 inches long; 

 very dense on shoot; pointing forwards. Slender, curved, 

 margins serrulate or sometimes entire. Resin canal 

 marginal; basal sheath deciduous. 



The Northern Siberian and Japanese form of P. Cemhray 

 and the smallest of all the pines, and extremely rare. 

 Elwes and Henry record the history of a specimen 

 planted at Dropmore in 1817. It was measured in 1837, 

 and was then 6 inches high, and in 1866 it had soared 

 to 8J inches ! so there is not much fear of it growing 

 too tall for the average rock garden. My largest 

 " specimen " is about 7 inches high by 8 inches through. 



Bean ("Trees and Shrubs," ii. 176) states that it 

 was in cultivation early last century, and was lost sight 

 of until recently reintroduced by Captain CHnton Baker. 

 On Mount Hakkoda, Japan, at 6,000 feet, Professor 

 Sargent saw impenetrable thickets of it, a few feet high 

 and covering hundreds of acres. 



Beissner (ii. 366) differentiates between P. pumila, 

 Kegel, and P. Cembra pygmcea, Carr. {" Conif.," i. 297). 

 He describes the latter as a small bush spreading 40 cm. 

 high, with short, very fine, spreading and pendulous 

 branches, and shorter, fine, irregular leaves. A dwarf 

 form like P. pumila. Apart from its habit, the differences 

 between P. pumila and P. Cembra are slight, the chief 

 being the amount of marginal serrulations of the leaves 

 and the position of the resin canal. As Beissner does not 

 refer to either of these in his description of P. Cembra,vdbT. 

 pygmcea, it is impossible to be certain about this plant, 

 which no longer appears to be in cultivation. Beissner' s 

 description foUows Carriere's, and as the latter gives as 

 an example of P. Cembra pyg7ncea the Dropmore plant 

 of P. pumila already referred to, there seems very little 



