PINUS LONGIFOLIA. 341 



The specific name Laricio is the common name of the tree in 

 southern Europe. It is often called the Corsican Pine in England, 

 for no assigned reason except that considerable quantities of seed have 

 been received from the island of Corsica. 



Pinus longifolia. 



A large tree 100 or more feet high, with symmetrical branches high 

 up on the trunk forming a rounded head of light foliage, but often 

 stunted and gnarled. Bark rough, fissured into polygonal plates by 

 deep, dark-coloured furrows. Leaves ternate, persistent two three years, 

 slender, 9 1 2 inches long, the inner face keeled so as to be nearly triquetrous, 

 and with a rounded convex back ; basal sheath persistent, greyish brown, 

 fimbriate at the edge with long fibres. Staminate flowers in crowded clusters, 

 cylindric, about an inch long. Cones on short stiff stalks, spreading or 

 recurved, solitary or in whorls of three five, ovoid-conic, 4 7 inches long, 

 and 3 inches in diameter above the base; scales 1*5 2 inches long, 

 and - 7 5 inch broad, the apophysis forming a spreading or recurved, obtuse, 

 pyramidal beak with four six distinct rounded faces. Seeds with a thin 

 membraneous wing 0'75 1 inch long, oblanceolate obtuse, and unequal 

 sided. Brandis, Forest Flora of Nortli-ivest India, p. 506. 



Pinus longifolia, Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. III. 651 (1832). Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. 

 IV. 2252, with figs. Endlicher, Synops. Conif 158. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. 

 XVI. 390. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 275. Hooker fil, Fl. Brit. Ind. V. 652. 



Pinus longifolia inhabits the outer Himalaya and foot-hills from 

 Bhotan to the Indus at elevations ranging from 1,500 to 6,000 feet, 

 attaining its greatest development in Kumaon where it ascends to 

 7,500 feet, and is one of the most beautiful trees of the district. 

 It forms pure forests in many places, often with a scanty undergrowth 

 of Andromeda, Berberis, Khus Cotinus, and a few others. 



In an economic sense, Pinus longifolia is the most valuable of the 

 Himalayan Coniferae to the inhabitants of the region ; the wood is 

 easy to work, and is extensively used on the hills for building and 

 out-of-door carpentry, but soon decays on exposure to the weather. It 

 yields large quantities of turpentine and resin, the collection of which 

 is an important industry of the districts in which the tree is abundant; 

 the stumps of the trees that have been tapped for their resinous 

 products are often so full of turpentine that the wood is used as 

 torches instead of candles in houses and mines; the bark is used for 

 tanning leather ; charcoal is made of the wood, and the charcoal of 

 the leaves mixed with rice-water is used instead of ink ; the seeds are 

 much eaten by the poorer inhabitants, but they have a strong flavour of 

 turpentine.* As may be inferred from its geographical position, this 

 Pine is too tender for the climate of Great Britain. According to 

 London it was introduced in 1801, and was long cultivated as a 

 greenhouse plant; its long, slender, bright green, pendulous leaves render 

 it a distinct and beautiful object for the conservatory, for the decoration 

 of which it is still occasionally used while in a young state. It has its 

 analogue in the beautiful P. patula of Mexico, which is hardier and 

 attains a large size in Devon, Cornwall and the south of Ireland. 



* Brandis, Forest Flora of North-west India, loc. cit. supra. 



