THE SCOTS PINE 55 



tenacity of purpose a virtue. Indeed, it seems as 

 much at home upon a seashore as a sand-born courser 

 ambling over the inhospitable tracts of his native 

 wastes in Arabia Deserta. 



By Pliny the Second, and in modern days by the 

 Portuguese, the Pinaster has been called and regarded 

 as the Wild Pine, while the Pinea has been looked 

 upon and designated as its cultivated counterpart. 

 Indeed, so far has this idea been carried, and to such 

 a low depth from the position of a stately tree has the 

 P. Pinea sunk, that at one time it was associated 

 linguistically with the common and garden Pine 

 Apple. It might be adduced that it is hardly as 

 derogatory to the dignity of a Maritime Pine that 

 a Pine Apple should put forward a questionable claim 

 of relationship to it, as it is that an outcast nettle 

 should have established a direct kinsmanship to our 

 stately Elm. It should be added, that, in spite of 

 the indignities, both have soared above and survived 

 the ignominy of the inferences. 



The Scots Pine 



The Scottish Fir 

 In murky file rears his inglorious head. 

 And blots the fair horizon. 



Mason. 



P. Sylvestris (Scots Pine) is the indigenous repre- 

 sentative of that old-established trio of Conifers in 

 our midst that go by the names of Scots, Austrian, 

 and Corsican. 



The three are evidently trees of affinity, but of 

 different geographical habitat. They require here 

 but little comment and less explanation. We should 

 like to record that we are by no means in agreement 

 with the drift of the poet Mason's idea of it. We 

 have only quoted it as an expression of opinion that 



