CHAP. CXIII. 



CONl'FKR.E. Pi NUS. 



2l!U 



The species is readily known by the leaves 

 being regularly distributed over the branches, 

 instead of being collected in tufts alternating 

 with naked spaces, as they appear to be in 

 most other pines. In America, the leaves are 

 about 1 in. long; but at Dropmore they are 

 sometimes more than Hin. The catkins of 

 both sexes are expanded in May, before those 

 of P. sylvestris ; but, as in that species, the 

 cones do not attain their full size and matu- 

 rity till the November of the second year, and 

 do not open to shed their seeds till the spring 

 of the third year. The cones are commonly 

 in pairs, of a grey or ash colour (whence the 

 American name of grey pine); they are 

 above 2 in. long, and have the peculiarity of 

 always pointing in the same direction as the 

 branches. They are remarkable for curving to one side, which gives them the 

 appearance of small horns. They arc extremely hard, and often remain on 

 the trees several years. 



Geograpiii/, History, Sfc. P. BankswH^, according to Michaux, is found 

 farther northward than any other American pine. In Nova Scotia and the 

 district of Maine, where it is rare, it is called the scrub pine ; and, in Canada, 

 the grey pine. According to Titus Smith {Mag. Nat. Hist., viii. p. 655.), 

 it is called, in the neighbourhood of Halifax, the long-limbed Hudson's Bay 

 pine. " In the environs of Hudson's Bay, and of the Great Mistassin Lakes, 

 the trees, which compose the forests a few degrees farther south, disappear 

 almost entirely, in conseiiuence of the severity of the climate and the 

 sterility of the soil. The face of the country is almost everywhere broken 

 by innumerable lakes, and covered with large rocks piled upon one an- 

 other, and usually overgrown 

 with black lichens, which deep- 

 en the gloomy aspect of these 

 desolate and almost uninhabit- 

 ed regions." {Michx.) Here 

 and there, in the intervals of 

 the rocks, Michaux adds, are 

 seen a few individuals of the 

 scrub pine; but they seldom 

 grow higher than 3 ft. Dr. 

 Richardson, in Franklin's Nar- 

 rative, states that P. Banks- 

 iana was found exclusively oc- 

 cupying dry sandy soils. It oc- 

 curred as far to the northward 

 as lat. 64° ; but it was said to 

 attain higher latitudes on the 

 sandy banks of the Mackenzie 

 River. At what time, and by 

 whom, this pine was intro- 

 duced into Britain, is uncer- 

 tain : it was in cultivation by 

 Forsyth, in the Chelsea Bo- 

 tanic Garden, before 1785; but, 

 as Mr. Lambert, in 1804,found 

 a remarkably fine tree growing 

 at Pain's Hill, it was in all 

 probability planted there by 

 the founder of the place, the 

 Hon. Charles Hamilton, pre- 



2067 



