CHAPTER IX 



VARIABILITY OF CONIFEROUS TREES 



Few facts in connection with coniferous trees 

 have impressed me more than their extreme vari- 

 abiHty, whether when growing under the same or 

 different conditions as to soil, aspect, or situation. 

 I have repeatedly known foresters, and other 

 persons who were deeply interested in coniferous 

 trees, quite at a loss to recognise at sight, on one 

 estate, species with which they were perfectly 

 familiar in other parts of the country ; and very 

 often it has happened that specimens sent for 

 the purpose of recognition have, owing to a 

 variety of causes, been wrongly named by good 

 authorities. In the latter case I refer directly to 

 foliage, the fruit forming an unerring guide to 

 identity. 



The Common Scotch Pine {Pinus sylvestris) 

 varies to a wide extent in general aspect, foliage, 

 and size and shape of cones ; and the same may 

 be said, though in a greatly increased manner, 

 of the Corsican Pine (P. Laricio) and its numerous 

 forms. Until quite recently, P. Laricio nigricans 

 was ranked as a distinct species, but along the 

 margins of a single plantation at Penrhyn Castle, 



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