344 PINUS MONTANA. 



The area of distribution of the Mountain Pine comprises the 

 greater part of the mountain ranges of central and southern Europe 

 from Thuringen in central Germany to Calabria in southern Italy, 

 and from the Sierra de Cuei^a in central Spain to the Carpathians, 

 the Bokovine Alps and the mountains of Servia. Its vertical 

 range varies from 500 to 8,000 feet elevation, the lowest limit 

 occurring in Silesia, and the highest in the Tyrol. On the Swiss 

 Alps its vertical range is from 3,000 to 5,000 feet, and on the 

 Pyrenees from 4,500 to 6,500 feet. 



The Mountain Pine in its various aspects has been studied by 

 Willkomm who has conclusively shown that the shrubby and arborescent 

 forms result from climate, altitude, soil and aspect, and that they 

 cannot be distinguished as varieties as the one passes imperceptibly 

 into the other that the cones from different localities although 

 exhibiting an infinite diversity of form and size, preserve an identity 

 of structure and therefore all the forms must be united under one 

 specific name.* The different specific names under which the Mountain 

 Pine is still known had their origin in different localities, thus : 

 Pumilio was first applied to the form that occurs on the Tnselsberg 

 in Thuringen and on the Carpathians, Mufjhus to the Mountain Pine 

 of the Tyrolese and Venetian Alps, and uncinata to that of the 

 Pyrenees and Spanish mountains. In British Pineta, uncinata is used 

 occasionally to designate the arborescent form. 



The Mountain Pine exhibits some remarkable phenomena incident 

 on the high altitude at which it grows. The following account of it 

 as seen on the Tyrolese Alps is taken from Kernel's "Natural 

 History of Plants," Oliver's Translation, Vol, I. p. 549: 



" On the slopes of the mountains, the growing end of tl^e stem is 

 always directed towards the valley. The boughs and twigs which curve 

 upwards from the main stems are exceedingly elastic and when pressed 

 down stretch themselves along the ground. Since all the boughs of 

 the crown turn upwards, we get here a considerable accumulation, so 

 that in many old clumps of Mountain Pine, the numerous boughs are 

 so thickly crowded and so closely interwoven that progress through 

 them is impossible. The extensive tracts of Mountain Pine are 

 therefore avoided and left alone, and many of them have never been 

 penetrated by the foot of man during their whole existence. Frequently 

 these Pines grow so high that one is over-topped, even when standing 

 upright, by the highest prickly branches. If we mount on one of the 

 curved ascending boughs in order to see above the highest branches, 

 the bough bends down to the earth under our weight along with the 

 stem from which it arises, and we again sink despairingly into the sea 

 of dark green crowns. Just such a down-bending occurs under the 

 burden of the winter snow ; if then, by chance, the ordinary mantle 

 is added to by that from avalanches, the pressure increases so much 

 that the branches are pressed down to the soil. This process may go 

 on to such an extent, that even many branches, which in summer 

 stand more than a yard above the ground, lie in the winter directly 



* Forstliche Flora von Deutschland und Oesterreich, ed II. (1887) 



