PINE TREES. 67 



stronger, and it grows more rapidly. It forms, in 

 fact, a large and handsome tree when the branches are 

 not lopped off for firewood. The Aleppo has a more 

 rounded top, a smaller cone, and a less rigid leaf. 



Le Maout regards the cone of the Pinaster as 

 having a phyllotaxy of -j^-. I have examined many 

 specimens from the Riviera and from the south of 

 England, and I find that this arrangement involves a 

 torsion of the axis. The - 2 \ phyllotaxy is open to a 

 similar objection, the torsion being reversed. The 

 formula -Jf holds for all the Pinaster cones which 

 have come under my notice. They are wonderfully 

 regular in structure, and exhibit no variation. For 

 this reason they are easy to work out. Le Maout's 

 diagram of the Pinaster cone is accurate ; but this 

 author draws his conclusion from one cycle only. If 

 any botanist will take the trouble to follow out the 

 phyllotaxy on this drawing through the full length of 

 the cone he will find that the series of 1, 35, 69, 103, 

 &c. forms a vertical rank (orthostich), whereas the 

 series of 1, 14, 27, 40, 53, &c., and that of 1, 22, 43, 

 64, &c., fall away to the right and to the left. Exactly 

 the same result will be obtained by covering an un- 

 opened cone with a coat of white paint and numbering 

 the scales in ink. 



The third conifer that flourishes by the coast is 

 the magnificent Stone Pine or Umbrella Pine (Pinus 

 Pinea, Fig. 25) ; in French " Pin Parasol." This tree 

 is more frequent and characteristic in central and 

 southern Italy, " where, with its dark green spreading 

 umbrella-like crown, it is inseparably associated with 

 our conception of Italian landscape." 



It is strange that so handsome a tree should not 



5A 



