Pinus 1 08 1 



being the main protection of the town of that name against the sand, which now 

 piled up in large dunes would otherwise be blown inland over the town. Paths and 

 roads have been cut through the forest, and a few years ago a serious fire swept 

 over part of it, so that the pine is now having a hard struggle for existence. 



Prof. Jepson informs me that this pine grows on the Monterey peninsula from 

 the sand dunes of the seashore inland over the adjoining hilly ridges, which 

 nowhere exceed 400 ft. elevation. The average rainfall 1 for the twenty-three years, 

 1878 to '900, was 1 5 '37 in. annually, occurring on forty to sixty days in the winter 

 from October to April. The months of June, July, and August are perfectly dry. 

 The number of cloudy days in the year varies from 1 20 to 1 50. The thermometer 

 never rises above 89 F., and rarely descends below freezing-point, and then only for 

 short periods in the night, though 24 F. was registered in 1905, and 27 F. in 1906. 



This species was discovered 2 by Douglas during his stay at Monterey in 1831 

 and 1832 ; and from seeds sent home by him in 1833 plants were raised in the garden 

 of the Horticultural Society and in the Duke of Devonshire's grounds at Chiswick, 

 which were 3 to 5 ft. in height in 1838. Coulter also sent cones at about the same 

 time, from Monterey, which were described by Don as P. radiata in 1836. Subse- 

 quently, in 1850 and 185 1, consignments of seed were sent to Messrs. Veitch by 

 William Lobb. 8 (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



Near the sea in almost all parts of Great Britain, but especially in the south- 

 west of England, in Wales, and in Ireland, Pinus radiata has proved to be a tree of 

 great value for shelter and ornament ; and though its timber is too coarse to come into 

 competition with that of Baltic or even home-grown pine, its growth is so extremely 

 rapid that it may prove profitable to grow for mining timber in Cornwall and 

 South Wales. 



It produces seed freely at an early age. The seedlings grow more rapidly 

 than those of any other pine which I have raised ; and though they are not so easy to 

 transplant as those of the Scots pine, the proportion of losses in transplantation is much 

 less than in the Corsican species. In a mixed plantation made by C. Daubuz, Esq., 

 of Killiow, about two miles from Truro, in 1864, Monterey pines when I saw them in 

 1902 averaged about 8 ft. in girth, larch 3 ft., chestnut 3 ft., and silver fir about 

 40 in. The pines were raised from seeds of a home-grown tree under twenty years 

 old ; and it seemed to me that in this locality, if planted thick enough and cut at the 

 right size, they might be equal to imported pit-props. 



Though the tree is hardy enough to grow in many inland parts of England, 

 it seems to succeed best near the sea ; and at Colesborne, though it has endured 

 frosts as low as zero in sheltered places, the growth is slow, the young shoots are 



1 The rainfall, however, has been more considerable lately: in 1905, 2I'63 in. ; in 1906, 25-03 in. ; and in 1907, 

 28-98 in. 



2 Colligon, a gardener who accompanied the La Peyrouse expedition, is supposed to have sent a cone of this species to the 

 museum at Paris in 1787, which was described by Loiseleur in Nouv. Duhamel, v. 243 (1812) as P. californiana. The 

 latter states that a plant raised from the seed of this cone was living in 1 81 2 in the open in the Jardin des Plantes. The 

 seed, however, is described as being large and edible like that of P. Cembra, and the foliage as being in twos and threes j and 

 in all probability this plant was P. Pinea, 3 Hortus Veitchii, 39 (1906). 



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