PINUS PATULA. 355 



Pinus patula. 



.V large live 60 80 feet high with stout spreading branches ; in old 

 age with an irregularly branched, rounded top. In the south-west of 

 England and the south of Ireland, a medium-sized tree 35 50 feet high, 

 the trunk usually dividing at a short distance from the ground into two 

 or more trunk-like stems which send out stout spreading branches 15 20 

 or more feet long. Bark of trunk greyish brown, rugged and irregularly 

 rissured. Branchlets slender, at first green, changing to light reddish 

 brown at the end of the second year ; buds cylindric-conic, acute, 

 0'75 1 inch long, the perulse linear-lanceolate, acuminate, fringed with 

 silky hairs, pale chestnut-brown. Leaves persistent three four years, 

 usually in fascicles of three, but sometimes four five, filiform, triquetral, 

 9 12 inches long, flaccid and pendulous, bright grass-green; basal 

 sheath 1 1'25 inch long, pale brown the first year, much shorter, 

 darker and crumpled the second year, i Staminate flowers densely 

 clustered, cylindric, obtuse, about an inch long. Cones shortly stalked, 

 in pairs or in clusters of three five, conic-cylindric, tapering to 

 an obtuse apex, about 4 inches long, and 1-5 inch in diameter 

 above the base. Scales oblong, slightly thickened at the apex, the 

 exposed part rhomboidal with a tranverse keel and circular central 

 depression in which is a small pyramidal umbo. Seeds small with a 

 narrow wing an inch long. 



Pinus patula, Schiede ex Schlechtendal in Linnrea, XII. 438 (1838). London, 

 Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2266, with figs. Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 157. Carriere, 

 Traite Conif. ed. II. 426. ' Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 397. Gordon, Pinet. 

 ed. II. 278. Masters in Gard. Chron. XXIII. (1885), p. 108, with figs. ; and 

 Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 286. 



Pinus patula inhabits the high plateau and mountains of central 

 Mexico at elevations ranging from 6,000 to 12,000 feet above the 

 level of the sea ; the limits of its distribution have not been 

 .ascertained. It was discovered by Schiede and Deppe about the year 

 1828 and probably introduced by them, as Mr. Lambert had a plant 

 of it at his residence at Boyton in Wiltshire that was six feet high 

 in 1837.* In the following year seeds were collected by Hartweg 

 in the Eeal del Monte district for the Horticultural Society of London 

 from which plants were raised and subsequently distributed among 

 the Fellows, f 



This fine Mexican species is one of the most ornamental of Pines ; 

 it bears a strong resemblance to Pinus loncjifolia of the Himalayan 

 region, but unlike that species it is sufficiently hardy for the climate 

 of Devon, Cornwall and the south of Ireland. Excellent specimens 

 are growing at Carclew, Tregehan, Pencarrow, Lamorran, Bicton and 

 Fota Island. 



Mention may here be made of a closely allied species inhabiting the 

 same region, of w T hich there is a tree in the Pinetum at Bicton, 

 probably the only one in this country. 



* London, Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicuni, loc. cit. supra. 

 f Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, Vol. III. ser. 2, p. 125. 



