THE TRUE PINES. 177 



quarters of an inch long, imbricated, and pale yellow when 

 young, but turning nearly black when old ; buds, three quarters 

 of an inch long, white, woolly, imbricated, and non-resinous, 

 with the scales turned back at the points. Cones, from four to 

 six inches long, and two inches and a half wide at the broadest 

 part, which is below the middle, and of a light shining brown 

 colour, and growing in clusters of from four to eight, but some- 

 times more in number, in a horizontal direction, and without any 

 footstalks. Scales, from one to one inch and a quarter in 

 length, and three quarters of an inch broad, terminating in an 

 unequally four-sided pyramid ; of an ash-grey colour, very hard, 

 and with a small sharp point, more particularly on the upper 

 part of the cone. Seeds, oblong, with wings one inch and a 

 half long, and nearly half an inch broad. Seed-leaves, from 

 seven to eight in number. 



A large tree, attaining a height of from fifty to seventy feet, 

 with the branches in regular whorls, turned up at the extremi- 

 ties, and thickly set with foliage at intervals of three or four 

 inches, occasioned by the shedding of the male flowers. This 

 species and its varieties mostly grow in the sandy plains on the 

 lower mountains of the northern and central Apennines, the 

 variety with shorter leaves and smaller cones, (minor), prefers 

 the lower mountains, while the larger coned and longer leaved 

 form prefers the sandy plains, but neither is found south of the 

 Apennines. Its highest limit is 2,800 feet above the sea in Upper 

 Italy. It is found in Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Turkey, 

 also on the French coast of the Mediterranean, where it is em- 

 ployed for covering immense tracts of sand along the shore, 

 and in the island of Brazza, on the Dalmatian coast in the 

 Gulf of Venice. It is also found (but no doubt introduced 

 from Europe) in China, Japan, New Holland, New Zea- 

 land, and St. Helena, and even in the north of India, where 

 Major Madden and other travellers detected it in Nepal, and 

 gave it the names of P. Nepalensis and P. Latteri, but there is 

 not the slightest difference between the European and Asiatic 

 plants. 



It grows freely exposed to the sea breezes, and is one of our 



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