45 



BANKSIANA GROUP OF TWO-LEAVED OR 

 BINJE PINES 



Green be those hill-side pines for ever. 



Whittier. 



P. EcHiNATA (or Mitis), Halepensis, Brutia, Muri- 



CATA, PUNGENS, ViRGINIANA (OR InOPS), BaNK- 

 SIANA. 



Of this group of seven there are only two, the 

 P. Muricata and P. Banksiana, that are tolerably 

 often to be seen with us. The majority of them are 

 climate shy, and one, the Virginiana or Inops, has 

 never been persevered with, for the very urgent 

 reason that it neither brings beauty to bear on any 

 scene nor holds out any prospect of profit to its 

 producers. 



In the two-leaf-in-a-cluster division the old order 

 of class legislation among trees has changed, and given 

 way to the new. The Sylvestres group has been 

 disestablished, and two groups, Banksiana and Pin- 

 aster, set up. Most of the Sylvestres have been 

 drafted to the ranks of the Pinasters, and the new 

 Banksiana group takes toll from both of the old groups 

 formerly named Banksiana and Sylvestres. 



The chief difference in these two new groups is to 

 be found in the position of their cones, and, secondly, 

 in the manner of the growth of their shoots. 



In the Banksiana group, the cones grow not only on 

 the ends of the branchlets, but also lower down, in 

 the middle of each year's shoots. 



In the Pinaster group the cones are only sub- 

 terminal, or approximately close to the end of the 

 branchlet. 



In the Banksiana group the shoots appear in more 

 than one whorl, and are therefore described botanic- 

 ally as multi-nodal. 



