CHAP. CXI II. CONl'FER.i:. Pl^NUS. 2219 



in the gardens of Fulham Palace; and the next largest are at Syon, Pain's Hill, 

 and Whitton. The tree at Fulham is above 80 ft. high ; one of those at Whitton 

 is 60 ft. high, with a trunk i ft. in diameter, clear of branches to the height of 

 40 ft. Several at Pain's Hill, and some at Syon, are above 60 ft. hi<'h. The 

 largest pinasters which we have heard of in England are at Westwich House 

 Norfolk, the seat of J. Peters, Esq. They were planted in 1702, and in 1809 

 several of them were measured by N, Kent, Esq., and found to be upwards 

 of soft, high, and to contain about eight loads of timber each. (See Traits. 

 Soc. Arts, vol. xxviii. p. 42.) 



Geography, History, Sfc. The pinaster is indigenous to the south of 

 Europe, and to both shores of the Mediterranean ; to Greece, the west of 

 Asia, the Himalayas, and, as it would appear, even to China. It may be 

 doubted, however, whether it has not been carried from Europe to the 

 latter country. It is not indigenous to the north of France or Germany, 

 and is, perhaps, most abundant in Spain, and on the shores of the Mediterra- 

 nean. It never thrives, except in deep sand or sandy loam ; and it is said 

 to perish when planted in calcareous soil. The pinaster was introduced 

 into England in 1596, by Gerard; and one of the oldest trees still existing is 

 in the gardens of the episcopal palace at Fulham, where, as we have seen 

 above and in p. 43., it was, in 1835, 80 ft. high. The pinaster has since been 

 very extensively planted in Britain, as an ornamental tree; and, in some 

 parts of Hampshire and Norfolk, plantations of it have been formed on a 

 large scale for useful purposes. In Hampshire, it has generally failed, 

 from the soil being peaty, wet at bottom, shallow, and hard, or the subsoil 

 being chalk. In Norfolk, on the other hand, where it has been planted 

 in deep sand, the success has been very different. At Westwich House, in 

 that county, already mentioned, the pinaster began to be planted in 1702 ; and 

 many trees, still existing there, are from 70 ft. to 80 ft. high, with trunks pro- 

 portionately thick. An account of the pinaster plantations at this place, taken 

 in 1809, is given in the Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. xxviii., by which 

 it appears that J. B. Peters, Esq., the father of the present proprietor, had 

 raised above 200,000 plants from seeds gathered from his own trees. He 

 had planted altogether upwards of 500 acres, through which he had formed a 

 drive of five miles in length. The situation is bleak, and the soil sand, 

 covered with heath, on a subsoil of coarse hard gravel, or dead yellow sand. 

 Nevertheless, on this soil the plants grow so rapidly, that, in 8 or 9 years 

 after planting, their trunks are from 10 in. to 20 in. round, and some have 

 occasionally made shoots of 5 ft. in length in 2 years. They are planted at 

 7 ft. apart every way, and remain unthinned and unpruned till they attain a 

 circumference of 2 ft. or 3 ft. Such is the vigour with which these trees 

 grow, that, on the steep side of a hill, the roots have been observed to emerge 

 from the soil, creep along its surface for 2 ft. or 3 ft., and then strike into the 

 soil again. (Trans. Soc. Arts, vol. xxviii. p. 42.) In Scotland and Ireland, the 

 pinaster has only been planted as an ornamental tree ; and it thrives, in these 

 countries, in low situations, and near the sea. In France, it cannot be culti- 

 vated with a view to profit, to the north of Paris; and, even in that latitude, 

 it is sometimes destroyed by severe winters : for example, in 1788, when a 

 severe frost killed some large trees on the estate of Malesherbes. It abounds 

 in Switzerland, where its timber is said to be used in forming shingles ; and it 

 is planted as an ornamental tree in Germany, but scarcelj- thrives north of 

 Hamburg. 



The most remarkable fact in the history of this tree is, the great use which 

 has been made of it in France, in covering immense tracts of barren sand. 

 This mode of improvement was first commenced in 1789, by M. Bremontier, 

 of the Administration of Forests, who published a memoir on the subject in 

 the year 1800, of which we shall make a very brief abridgement. There are 

 very extensive downs in several countries of Europe ; and the mostremarkable 

 in France are those between Dunkirk and Nieuport, between Calais and 

 Boulogne, and between the rivers Adour and Gironde. Bremontier com- 



