328 PINUS EXCELSA. 



by the brick-red tinge of the bark. Everywhere else it has 

 been planted by the Japanese, almost universally associated with 

 P. Thunbergi with which it plays an important part in the decoration 

 of their gardens. These Pines are dwarfed, distorted, and trained into 

 the most fantastic shapes, a practice which will be again adverted 

 to under P. Thuribergi. The wood of P. densiflora is coarse-grained 

 but moderately strong ; it is used for every description of carpentry 

 by the Japanese. 



Pinus densiflora was introduced to European gardens in 1854 through 

 the horticultural establishment founded by Dr. Siebold at Leyden, but 

 it was not generally distributed in Great Britain till after 1861, 

 in which year seeds were brought from Japan by the late John 

 Gould Veitch. It occupies quite a subordinate place in British 

 Arboriculture ; it grows slowly in the drier climate of this country, 

 and possesses no especial features distinct from the common European 

 Pines as an ornamental tree. 



As distinguished '-from Pinus Thunbergi, P. densiflora is a more 

 slender tree with bark of a different colour; the buds are smaller, 

 reddish brown (not white) with looser scales ; the leaves are thinner 

 and softer to the touch, the cones somewhat smaller, the scales of 

 which have a pungent umbo ; it also differs from P. Thunbergi in the 

 position of the resin canals of the leaf which are placed immediately 

 on the epidermis and not within the parenchyma. 



Pinus excelsa. 



A tree, of which the trunk varies in height according to altitude 

 and environment, 50 15Q feet, and in diameter 2 3 feet; bark 

 greyish brown fissured into small, rather regular plates about 0*25 inch 

 thick.* Branches spreading horizontally, the higher ones ascending; 

 ramification verticillate but sometimes lateral only. Branches slender 

 with smooth greyish brown bark, the younger growths greenish brown; 

 buds conic-cylindric, O25 0'4 inch long with lanceolate, acuminate pale 

 brown scales. Leaves quinate, persistent three four years, filiform, 

 triquetral, with minutely serrulate margins, 5 7 inches long, bright 

 green on the convex side, greyish white on the flat sides; basal 

 sheath pale brown, 0*75 inch long, deciduous. Staminate flowers in 

 dense clusters of twenty or more, cylinclric, obtuse, O4 inch long, rose- 

 pink ; involucral bracts numerous, ovate, imbricated. Cones solitary 

 or two three together, shortly pedunculate, pendulous, sub-cylindric, 

 6 8 inches long, at first pale purple changing to light brown when 

 mature ; scales elongated, wedge-shaped with a rounded apical margin, 

 the exposed part striated longitudinally and terminating in a small 

 umbo. Seeds with an oblong wing 0'75 inch long. 



Pinus excelsa, Wallicli, Plant. Asiat. Rar. III. t. 201 (1832). London, Arb. et 

 Frut. Brit. IV. 2285, with figs. (1838). Forbes, Pinet. Woburn, 75, t. 29. Link 

 in Linnsea, XV. 515. Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 145. Carriere, Traite Conif. 

 ed. II. 397. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 404. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 299. 

 Brandis, Forest Fl. N.W. India, 510. Hooker fil. Fl. Brit. Ind. V. 651. Beissner, 

 Nadelholzk. 283, with fig. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 22. 



Eng. Himalayan Pine. Fr. Pin pleureur. Germ. Thranen-Kiefer. 



* Gamble, Manual of Indian Timbers, 398. 



