THE TRUE PINES. ISl 



growing together, pendulous, of a dull brown colour, and 

 bluntly egg-shaped. Scales, about the size of those of the 

 Scotch Fir, but not so much elevated in the centre. Branches, 

 turned upwards, and very numerous, forming a dense bush, 

 with the bottom branches creeping on the ground, but growing, 

 in very favourable situations, into a small tree twenty or thirty 

 feet high, with a grey and rather smoothish bark. 



This Pine is found inhabiting the mountains of Middle 

 Europe, generally on chalk formations, on the southern slope 

 of the Alps, towards the east (Tyrol), and beyond the limits of 

 trees, but scarcely higher than 7,500 feet, nor lower than 4,000 

 feet of elevation, where it prefers a swampy soil. It also grows 

 on the northern slope of the Alps, and is very common on the 

 Carpathians, where it forms a region above the common Spruce 

 Fir, and at great elevations it becomes steraless and a spreading 

 bush creeping along the ground. It produces the Hungarian 

 Balsam. 



No. 17. PiNUS PUNGENS, Michaux, the Table Mountain Pine. 



Leaves, in twos, from two to two inches and a half long, 

 broad, straight, rigid, and pale, yellowish green, thickly set on 

 the branches; sheaths short, smooth, shrivelled, and not jagged 

 at the margins. Branches, irregular and spreading ; buds, 

 blunt-pointed, and covered with resin. Cones, top-shaped, 

 rather large, light yellowish brown, three inches and a half 

 long, and two inches and a half broad at the base, tapering to 

 the point, and without footstalks, generally in whorls round the 

 stem and top branches, pointing horizontally, and remaining 

 on the tree for years. Scales, thick, hard, and broad at the 

 base, elevated into a pyramid, with an incurved, strong, awl- 

 shaped hook, exceeding a quarter of an inch in length. Seeds, 

 rather small, rough, and black, with a narrow wing, nearly one 

 inch long. Seed-leaves, from six to eight in number. 



A tree, with the habit of the common Scotch Fir, but with 

 a more branchy head, growing from forty to fifty feet 

 high. 



