388 

 THE STONE PINE. 



PlNUS PINEA. 



THIS is the Pine of Italy and the Tyrol, much prized for 

 its nuts even in Pliny's time, who says that it bore 

 at the same time ripening fruit, fruit destined to be 

 matured the next year as well as in that which followed. 

 He adds, that ripe ones might be gathered at all seasons. 

 In its native country it is described as a noble tree, with a 

 towering stem, often exceeding a hundred feet in height, 

 and the Latin poets often celebrated it as "the vast Pine." 

 It throws up a naked tapering stem, and bears at its head 

 an extended table-like mass of branches, laden with a 

 peculiarly rich green foliage. Though introduced into 

 Britain so long ago as 1548, and far from uncommon in 

 collections, it rarely, if ever, assumes its native character. 

 Its usual form with us is a large dense bush, leafy to the 

 ground, having no main trunk, but divided just above the 

 roots into several crooked branches, which often creep 

 along the ground to some distance before they begin to 

 ascend. The leaves, which are long, grow in pairs ; they 

 are flat on the inner side and convex on the outer, and 

 when pressed together form a perfect cylinder. 



Gilpin's description of it, therefore, applies rather to the 

 Italian form of the tree than to specimens which he has 

 seen in Britain : " The Stone Pine promises little in its 

 infancy in point of picturesque beauty. It does not, like 

 most of the Fir species, give an early indication of its 

 future form. In its youth it is dwarfish and round-headed, 

 with a short stem, and has rather the shape of a full-grown 

 bush than of an increasing tree. As it grows older, it 

 does not soon lay aside its formal shape. It is long a 

 bush, though somewhat more irregular, and with a longer 

 stem ; but as it attains maturity, its picturesque form 



