Book III. 



RESINOUS OR CONIFEROUS TREES. 



983 



Sect. I. Resinous or Coniferous Trees. 



7039. The resinous forest trees are comprised in three genera belonging to the natural 

 order of Coniferecz, J ; viz. Firms and Cupressus, Moncec. Monad. L., and Juniperus, 

 Dicec. Monad. L. The trees which are valuable as timber are comprehended under 

 the genus Pinus, which comprises the three subdivisions of pines, larches, and firs. The 

 first is distinguished by fasciculated leaves in different sheaths, but proceeding from the 

 same sheathing base ; the second by fasciculated 

 leaves from solitary sheaths ; and the third by 

 solitary leaves. The branches of the whole genus 

 are frondose or spreading, and caducous : those of 

 the pine tribe spread the least ; those of the larch 

 tribe rather droop ; and those of the firs are thin 

 and much spread, and are peculiarly frondlike. 



7040. The wild or Scotch pine, erroneously de- 

 nominated Scots fir, is the Pinus sylvestris, L. 

 {Lam. pin, 1. t. 1 .) Pin, Fr. ; Keifer or Fohre, 

 Ger. ; and Pino, Ital. (Jig. 669. a) It is an 

 evergreen sub-conical tree; the foliage inclining 

 to dark-blue or grey; shorter and broader than 

 those of the stone pine (b) ; it is common in most 

 parts of Europe, particularly the northern coun- 

 tries, and is the only species of the genus indigenous 

 to Britain, being a native of Scotland, and natu- 

 ralised in England and Wales. Under favorable 

 circumstances it attains the height of seventy or eighty feet : it flowers in May, and 

 the cones are fit to gather in December. The finest pine-woods in Britain are at fnver- 

 cauld, in Invernesshire, and Gordon Castle, in Aberdeenshire. 



7041. Use. The timber of this tree is the red or yellow deal of the north of Europe, and is the most 

 durable and valuable of any of the genus, unless we except the common larch. The universality of its 

 application is known to every one. The Highland pine, Sang states to be not inferior to any imported, 

 either in cleanness or durability, when it has been grown on a proper soil, and to a sufficient age. " But 

 the planted Lowland pine," he adds, " is seldom applied to offices higher than that of roofing sheds or 

 huts, lining of carts, lathing, or making of packing-boxes ; while the natural or self-sown is fit for the 

 finest purposes." Pontey considers the English-grown wild pine, if properly pruned and grown to a 

 sufficient age, as likely to equal that of foreign growth. The tree is of great value as a nurse-plant ; 

 being next to the common birch and bastard mountain ash, or mountain sorb (Pyrus hybrida), the most 

 hardy timber-tree. Among its minor uses we shall only mention the production of tar by incision. 



7042. Varieties. Of these, several have been noticed by botanists, and some consider the P. maritima 

 (sp. Willd.) as nothing more. According to Sang, the variety commonly cultivated is least worth the 

 trouble. " The P. sylvestris, var. montana," he says, " is the variety which yields the red wood : even 

 young trees of this sort are said to become red in their wood, and full of resin very soon. The late dis- 

 tinguished Don, of Forfar, exhibited specimens of cones of each variety to the Highland Society of 

 Scotland, and likewise to the Caledonian Horticultural Society. The variety preferred by Don, is 

 distinguished by the disposition of its branches, which are remarkable for their horizontal direction, 

 and for a tendency to bend downwards close to the trunk. The leaves are broader and shorter than in 

 the common kind, and are distinguishable at a distance by their much lighter and beautiful glaucous 

 appearance. The bark of the trunk is smoother than in the common kind. The cones are thicker, and 

 not so much pointed. The plant is more hardy than the common sort, grows freely in almost any soil or 

 situation, and quickly arrives at a considerable size." Sang says, he has seen trees of this variety at 

 Caristoun and Brechin Castle : and it is much to be wished that he or some other competent nurseryman, 

 in that quarter, would collect the seeds, and propagate it extensively. Thouin (Notes sur la Culture de 

 Pins, 8vo. 1819,) mentions a variety, which he calls P. syl. var. pin de riga, as affording the best timber. 

 Whether the pine which forms the extensive plantations along the sea-coast at Bourdeaux, and is called 

 by foreign authors, Pinus mariti?na, be a variety of P. sylvestris or a distinct species, does not appear to 

 be ascertained. The plant is tender, and easily killed by frost when young ; but its timber is said to be 

 of excellent quality. (Radcliff's Flanders, 250.) 



7043. Soil and native site. " This tree is naturally the inhabitant of mountainous districts, and of rocky, 

 gravelly, or poor sandy soils, where its timber becomes most valuable and durable. On the sides of moun- 

 tains, in dells and hollows, among stones and rocks, beside rapid rivulets or mountain torrents, it is found 

 in high perfection ; and if it stand single, it is of great beauty. In many parts of the Scots Highlands, 

 where the soils are extremely various, and much mixed, the Scots pine "has arrived at a good size, and 

 often attained remarkable dimensions. In any kind of soil from a sandy to a clay, provided the substra- 

 tum be rubble or rock, it will grow and flourish ; but in wet tilly soils, it ought never to be planted ; 

 because whenever the roots have exhausted the turf or upper soil, and begin to perforate the sub-soil, the 

 tree languishes and dies." (Plant. Kal. 65.) 



7044. Insects. The larva of Noctua Pinastri, L. (Xylena, Hiib.) are deposited in the leading buds, and 

 often perforate the young shoots, and leave the tree without a leader. The aphis pine infests the tender 

 shoots ; and various dermestidce live in the bark, and perforate the soft wood. 



7045. The Corsican pine (P. laricio, P. S.) is a native of the mountains of Corsica and is nearly allied 

 to the Scotch pine. There is a specimen in the Paris gardens, planted in 1784 and 56 feet high in 1821, 

 thus described by David Don. " P. laricio is a much handsome and finer tree than P. sylvestris with 

 which however it in some respects agrees. It is of a more pyramidal habit, and its branches are shorter 

 and more regularly verticillated. Its leaves are a third longer, and of a lively green, with their sheaths 

 nearly entire." Its cones are shorter, ovate and quite straight, with depressed scales : and its bark is finer 

 and much more entire. The enlightened Professor of Agriculture informed us, that it is equally hardy 

 with P. sylvestris, and that its wood is much more weighty and resinous, and consequently more compact, 

 stronger, and more flexible. It grows wild on the summits of the highest mountains in Corsica. It 

 seems to bear cones very freely, which ripen nearly about the same time as those of P. sylvestris. 



7046. The pitch or red Canadian pine (P. resinosa) (Lam. pin. 20. t. 4.) is an Ameri- 



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