400 A HANDBOOK OF CONIFERS 



Wood of poor quality, coarse-grained and resinous, comparable 

 with that oi P. Pinaster.^ Heartwood yellowish brown, sapwood 

 yellow. The timber is used for inferior kinds of carpentry and 

 joiners' work, boxes, crates, mine-props, sleepers, telegraph poles, 

 fuel, and charcoal. Resin of good quality is produced by the tree, 

 and systematic tapping, under the control of the French Forestry 

 Officials, has been conducted in the Algerian forests of Oram for 

 the last 15 years. Thereabouts the forests of Aleppo pine extend 

 to 267,886 acres at an altitude of 3,280 ft. The resin does not 

 appear to run so freely as that of P. Pinaster, and the inaccessi- 

 bihty of the forests makes it a less profitable species. Trees 

 must be 36 in. in girth before they can be tapped. The bark 

 has been used for tanning. 



The Aleppo pine is a great drought -resisting tree and is valu- 

 able for hot and dry regions, where it has been planted in many 

 places to check soil erosion and as a windbreak. It has grown 

 well in S. Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Cyprus, S. Africa, and 

 other places where a light rainfall is followed by prolonged periods 

 of sunny weather and hot drying winds. The best results are 

 obtained by breaking up patches of ground 12-16 in. square 

 and a few feet apart, and sowing a few seeds in each about 1 in. 

 below the surface. Each seed-plot is then covered by light 

 brush as a protection against sun and wind until the seedlings are 

 well established. If plants are put out they are only successful 

 when a ball of soil remains attached to the roots ; treated in the 

 ordinary way they become shrivelled before the roots penetrate the 

 soil. Trees 15-20 years old seed freely, the seed ripening about 

 September. This pine should only be planted where more profit- 

 able species fail. It succeeds on thin limestone soils. 



Elwes and Henry, he. cit. v, 1099 (1910) ; Woolsey, French Forests and 

 Forestry (1917). 



Pinus Khasya, Royle. 

 Khasia Pine. 



Pinus Cavenclishiana, Hort. ; P. insularis, Endlicher ; P. Kasya, 

 Parlatore ; P. keseya, Royle ; P. khasia, Engelmann ; P. khasyana, 

 Griffith ; P. sinensis, EndJicher (not Lambert). 



A tree of small or moderate size in Khasia, but 100-150 or 

 more ft. high in Burma, with a trunk up to 10 ft. in girth. Bark 

 thick, deeply fissured. Young shoots without down, light brown, 

 slender. Winter buds oblong-conic, pointed ; scales brown, free 

 at the tips. Leaves in threes, usually falling during the second 

 year, very slender, green or grey green, 5-9 in. long, margins 

 finely toothed, apex a long, fine point, stomatic Lines on each 

 surface ; resin canals marginal ; basal sheath ^f in. long. Cones 

 sohtary, in pairs, or occasionally in threes, ovoid, symmetrical, 



1 Pinus Saportce, Rouy (FI. Fr. xiv, 3G8 (1913), a supposed hybrid between 

 P. halepensis and P. pinaster, has been recorded from France (Vaucluse). 



