Pinus Laricio 421 



they have plenty of light and air ; and though the great bulk of timber they 

 produce in a short time may make them worth planting on such soils, yet I doubt 

 the possibility of getting a sale at remunerative prices in most districts. In mixed 

 or pure plantations their lower branches die off and leave large snags which are 

 difficult and costly to remove, and though the very resinous nature of the wood may 

 fit it for some purposes, I have never heard of its being utilised to any extent, 

 except for pitwood. Austrian pine ^ has been planted very successfully as a shelter 

 belt on the southern shore of Belfast Lough, about forty yards from the sea, in 

 heavy clay ; and behind it hardwoods and other trees are doing well. The tree has 

 been extensively planted in many provinces of Austria and Hungary, mainly, 

 according to Seckendorff, with the object of improving the soil for other trees ; 

 it has been recommended for this purpose on the poorer limestone soils of England, 

 but the cost of so doing would in my opinion make the operation very unprofitable. 



Though there is no reason why the Austrian pine should not sow itself in Great 

 Britain, as the seeds ripen in hot years freely, yet I have never seen self-sown plants 

 except near Sarsden Park, Oxfordshire, the property of Lord Moreton, and here 

 only two or three young trees have sprung up on the rough limestone close to some 

 old quarries. 



The Austrian pine, according to Schiibeler, is hardy in Norway as far north as 

 Stenkjaer, at the upper end of the Throndhjem fjord. A tree in the Botanic Garden 

 at Christiania, which Schiibeler says was planted in 1842, is over 40 feet high, but 

 was not a fine specimen when I saw it in 1906. 



The Austrian pine^ has been largely planted in the northern United States as 

 an ornamental tree, and in youth is a handsome tree ; but it generally succumbs to 

 the attacks of boring insects before it has lost its bushy juvenile habit, and an 

 Austrian pine in the United States more than fifty feet high is exceptional. 



An account of Austrian turpentine,' which is derived from Pinus Laricio, is 

 given by Georg Schmidt in an inaugural dissertation before the University of Berne 

 in 1903. 



Cultivation : Calabrian Pine 



The Calabrian variety of Laricio was introduced into France by M. de Vilmorin 

 in 1 819-2 1, and a full account of its development at Les Barres was given in a 

 catalogue of the trees cultivated there, published at Paris in 1878 by the Forest 

 Department.* From this it appears that the tree has proved superior to other pines 

 as a forest tree, and is especially recommended for planting in mixture with oak, 

 which it rapidly surpasses in height, but without injuring it, on account of the slight 

 development of its lateral branches. It has attained on this poor sandy soil a 

 considerable size, and the young trees raised from seed grown there have preserved 

 their superiority in the second and third generation. It produces seed abundantly 

 there, but has the same defect as P. Laricio of being difficult to transplant. It is 

 not easy to distinguish from the Corsican variety. M. Maurice de Vilmorin tells 



'^ Journal 0/ Forestry, 1879, p. 165. ' Garden and Forest, ix. 453 (1896) and x. 470 (1897). 



' Harzbalsam von Pinus Laricio (Bern, 1903). ^ Cf. Pard<;, Arb. Nat. de Barres, 61 (1906). 



