50 PINES 



reader of descriptions be disturbed at the similarity 

 of this Pine and the previously described one, as it 

 appears on paper, we offer this crumb of comfort. 

 There is a cone difference that gives a clue. The 

 prickles on the P. Pungens are incurved by tendency, 

 and the prickles of the P. Muricata's cones are de- 

 cidedly recurved. We might further add that the 

 prickles on the P. Pungens are of a more substantial 

 appearance than those of the Muricata, nor have the 

 cones of the Pungens, at least the ones that I have 

 seen, the thicker scales on the outer side of the base 

 alluded to in the description of the Muricata. 



Only some half-dozen or so, including two at Kew 

 and two at Bayfordbury, seem to be the result of the 

 attempt to grow them, and this limited little lot seenxs 

 to impersonate the summum bonum of their success 

 in England. 



Consensus of opinion among the magnates on the 

 subject concurs in the opinion that where the tree 

 has been attempted the result has been an inglorious 

 failure. Few have survived, and in those few places 

 that they have, in their older stages of life have 

 turned out the reverse of ornamental. In all pro- 

 bability they will be encountered in even lesser 

 numbers in the future than they have been in the past. 



P. ViRGiNiANA, or Inops. — ^Thc word *' Inops " is a 

 Latin one, and signifies indigence and want of wealth. 

 There is a ring of poverty about the name, that is 

 more usually connected with the indigent fate of a 

 workhouse bratling than the idea of a desirable tree to 

 plant out in the interests of ornamentation. We 

 must presume, too, that it earned its name, as the 

 uncomplimentary remarks made about it by writers 

 ever since have endorsed this view. 



It is also credited by the same writers with only a 

 brief span of life in our collections, and perhaps that, 



