Pinus 1 103 



limestone, are var. Brutia. This variety l also grows sparingly on the north-east coast 

 of the Black Sea near Pizunda, 2 and a small forest, about 4 miles in length, of trees not 

 exceeding 40 ft. in height, occurs in the centre of Transcaucasia, at the foot of the 

 great Caucasus, on the west edge of the Eldar Steppe, between 1400 and 2000 ft. 

 elevation. 3 



This variety is cultivated in Afghanistan, where it was collected by Aitchison, 

 and in Persia where, Dr. Stapf informs us, it is a tall tree, resembling P. sylvestris in 

 habit, and very hardy, as it bears without injury severe winters and a heavy snow- 

 fall. Two plants raised at Vienna from seed brought home by Dr. Stapf from Shiraz 

 were at first indistinguishable from seedlings of typical P. halepensis, but as they 

 grew older bore the longer foliage of var. Brutia. (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



Though this tree was introduced by Bishop Compton in 1683, and has been 

 often planted since, it is not hardy enough to endure severe winters ; 4 and the trees 

 mentioned by Loudon 5 at White Knights, Berks, and Croome, Worcester, which in 

 1838 were 57 and 40 ft. high, are no longer living. The only trees 6 of considerable 

 size which we have seen are one at Margam, Glamorganshire (Plate 288), which in 

 1907, when I saw it, was a healthy tree, measuring 72 ft. by 10 ft, and bearing many 

 cones, which are conspicuous from their green colour, and another in the Botanic 

 Garden, Bath, which was 46 ft. by 4 ft. 6 in. in 1909, and is a healthy tree with smoother 

 and greyer bark than P. Pinaster. There are small trees at Kew and Bicton. 



Seedlings which I raised from Spanish seed in 1907 were, with three excep- 

 tions, killed by the frost of January 1909, though protected by boughs laid over them, 

 and it seems useless to attempt to grow this tree except in very dry, warm, and 

 sheltered situations near the sea in the south of England. 



According to Loudon, 7 var. Brutia was introduced in 1836, when it was raised 

 from seed by the Earl of Mountnorris. Strangways, in 1839, obtained seeds from 

 Persia, plants from which were raised in the garden of the Horticultural Society, 

 and were known as P. persica. No trees of this variety are now in cultivation in 

 this country, so far as we know, except a small specimen at Kew. 



In February 1910 I saw the tree in the Botanic Garden at Naples, on which 

 Tenore founded his description of P. Brutia. It is very vigorous, with a wide- 

 spreading crown of foliage, and measured 82 ft. by 10 ft. A branch sent to Cam- 

 bridge by the director, M. Cavara, bears seven young cones in a whorl, and two 

 mature cones in a second whorl, which scarcely differ from those of P. halepensis. 



1 Lipsky, in Act. Hort. Petrop. xiv. 309 (1898), denies the occurrence of P. halepensis in Russian territory bordering on 

 the Black Sea, all the specimens being P. Brutia. 2 Radde, Pflanzenverbreit. Kaukasus, 147 (1899). 



3 This is supposed to be a distinct species, P. eldarica of Medwejew, who refers the tree on the Black Sea to P. pithyusa, 

 Strangways. Cf. Derevya Kavkasa, 12, 14 (1905), and Moniteur Jardin Bot. Tiflis, ii. 26 (1906). 



4 Mouillefert, Essences Forestiires, 386 (1903), says that it is killed by 14 or 15 degrees of frost, and that it grows 

 rapidly in youth, and is very intolerant of shade. 



5 Lambert says that he saw a flourishing tree of this species bearing cones abundantly at 17 years after planting in the 

 garden of Stoke Park, Wilts, on sandy soil ; but Lady Lushington informs me that when she first lived, in 1 881, at this place, 

 now called Stokke, there was no such tree there. 



6 The tree at Penrhyn, a cone of which was figured in Gard. Chron. xxii. 552, fig. 97 (1884), no longer exists. Webster 

 in Woods and Forests, 19th November 1884, says it was 45 ft. high and 4 ft. in girth. 



7 Trees and Shrubs, 968 (1842), and Gard. Mag., 1839, p. 267. 



