Pinus I0 39 



Cultivation 



According to Hempel ' the ripe seeds of the Cembra pine fall with the cones 

 in the early spring, and as a rule lie a year before germinating ; but a small pro- 

 portion of the seeds that I have sown have germinated in England in the first 

 season, and some will remain two or even three years before coming up. 



The seedling has nine to twelve, usually ten cotyledons, and makes but a short 

 shoot in the first year. As mice and birds will probably devour the seeds unless 

 protected, it is best to sow them in boxes filled with rich light sandy soil, and 

 covered with fine wire netting. The seedlings should remain two or three years in 

 the boxes, and will require three to five years or more in the nursery before they are 

 large enough to plant out. 2 They are not often injured by spring frosts, but appear 

 to dislike lime in the soil, and the seedlings which I raised from seed brought 

 from Siberia all died at Colesborne, though one which I planted on sand in Norfolk 

 grew much better. 



Though a native of climates where the summer is extremely short, and growing 

 naturally on dry rocky situations, the tree seems to want good and fairly deep soil to 

 develop into a fine tree in England, and is usually a very slow grower, 3 though when 

 established it will make growths of 9 to 1 5 in. annually until it reaches 40 to 50 ft. 

 in height. It does not seem so difficult to transplant as some pines. 



Remarkable Trees 



This tree is said by Loudon to have been introduced by Archibald Duke of 

 Argyll in 1746 ; and one of the original seedlings mentioned as being at Whitton in 

 1838 still survives ; and though somewhat crowded by other trees which have 

 prevented it from branching in a natural manner, it is still fairly healthy and the 

 tallest known to us in England, being 80 ft. by 5 ft. when measured by Henry in 1903. 



At Walcot in Shropshire, the seat of the Earl of Powis, a large number of this 

 species were planted, according to Lambert, about 1820, having been raised from 

 Swiss seed some years previously ; but when I visited this place in 1906 I could not 

 find many survivors, though five or six handsome specimens remain in the grounds, 

 the largest of which were 59 ft. by 8 ft. 11 in., 59 ft. by 8 ft. 10 in., and 65 ft. by 

 7 ft. 5 in. respectively. 



At Oakly Park near Ludlow there is a very well-shaped tree, probably of the 

 same age as those at Walcot, on a steep bank below the house, which, though difficult 

 to measure accurately, is about 70 ft. by 8 ft. 4 in. The trunk of this is much cleaner 

 than usual, and contains about 80 ft. of timber. 



1 Hempel u. Wilhelm, Biiume und Straucher des Waldes, i. 175 (1889). 



s In his garden at Stratton Strawless, Mr. W. J. Birkbeck showed me in 1907 some seedlings which he had raised from 

 seeds gathered by him at Tolga Monastery in Russia, which were only about 3 in. high four years after sowing. 



3 Correvon, in Gard. Chron. xvii. 80 (1882), states that seeds sown at Vevey, at 300 ft. elevation above Lake Geneva, 

 and at a high altitude in the mountains, produced seedlings markedly different in their rate of growth. Those at the high 

 elevation attained 8 ft. high, while those at Vevey were scarcely 3 ft. high at the same age. 



