328 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



to be found here and there in the gardens and parks 

 of Bournemouth. Its cones (Fig. 42) are remarkable for 

 their beautiful purple and pale green tints when young, 

 and for the long trifid bract on the outside of each scale, 

 similar to but larger than those on the cone-scales of 

 the silver fir, Abies pectinata (Fig. 35), and not bent 

 backwards as they are. 



There are two pine trees of the genus Pinus which 

 one comes across, either in English plantations or on 

 the Continent, and are readily distinguished by having 

 the leaves (needles) in bundles of five. The first of 

 these is the Arolla pine — Pinus Cembra (French, 

 cenibrot) — a pine tree much like the Scots fir in general 

 appearance, but distinguishable from it, not only by the 

 tufts of five needles in a bunch instead of two, but also 

 by the erect cones which are nearly as broad as long 

 (3 in. by 2 in.). It is essentially a Siberian tree, and 

 grows in Europe only on the Carpathian Mountains and 

 the Alps. I have seen it in the neighbourhood of the 

 Rhone Valley in Switzerland, but it is yearly becoming 

 rarer owing to its destruction at the great heights 

 (4000 to 6000 feet), where it formerly flourished, by the 

 herdsmen in order to extend the pasturage for their 

 milk industry. The other pine with five leaves in a tuft, 

 which one may often see, is the Weymouth pine — Pinus 

 Strobus. It is a native of the New England States and 

 Canada, where it is known as the white pine, and is 

 greatly valued as a timber tree. It was introduced and 

 planted in England by Lord Weymouth at the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century, and is a very handsome tree, 

 growing to 120 feet in height, with a bluish-green colour 

 of the foliage like that of the Scots fir. The needles 

 are 3 to 4 inches long, and the cones pendulous, 5 to 

 6 inches long and blunt. Another pine of the five-leaved 



