PINUS PINASTER. 359 



the leading shoot of the fertile branches, which thence take a zig-zag 

 form, the prolongation consisting of lateral shoots only, and the cones 

 are solitary instead of clustered. 



Hamilton!, introduced by the Earl of Aberdeen from the 

 neighbourhood of Nice in 1825, has broader and shorter leaves and 

 larger cones than the common form ; and minor, found in the 

 Laudes of Bordeaux and other places, has- shorter and more slender- 

 leaves and smaller cones. They are local deviations from the common 

 type such as occur among most Pines. 



Pinus Pinaster inhabits the Mediterranean region from Portugal to 

 Palestine, but the actual limits of its distribution cannot now be 

 defined in consequence of the extensive areas that have been planted 

 with it for purposes of utility, and from which it has occasionally 

 spread spontaneously. It is, however, known to grow wild in the 

 Portuguese province of Estremadura, in Andalusia, in Algeria, on the 

 eastern Pyrenees ascending to 2,500 feet elevation ; on the Maritime 

 Alps up to 3,000 feet, in Corsica "still higher ; and in other southern 

 departments of France ; it is also common on the western slopes of 

 the Apennines, in Greece, and in parts of Asia Minor, but its 

 eastern limit has not been ascertained. 



In an economic sense Pinus Pinaster is by far the most valuable 

 Pine of the Mediterranean region ; its timber is, however, but a 

 subordinate factor, the wood being soft, coarse in grain and soon 

 decaying on exposure to the weather; it is used only for the coarser 

 kinds of out-of-door carpentry, and for fuel in the districts where this 

 Pine is abundant. But the collection of its resinous products, already 

 adverted to in page 93, forms one of the most important industries 

 in the south of France ; so profitable is this source of wealth that 

 P. Pinaster is extensively cultivated on the sandy tracts adjoining the 

 Bay of Biscay, where it grows with great rapidity and soon yields an 

 ample return for the labour bestowed upon it. 



Pinus Pinaster will not only grow under exposure to the sea-breeze, 

 hut also in shifting sands which it is enabled to do by the form 

 taken by the roots. These roots much resemble those of the 

 American P. palmtris, which grows under conditions similar to those 

 in which P. Pinaster attains its best development in Europe. There 

 is a decided tap-root, and when the soil is dry and sandy it descends 

 perpendicularly into it ; in proportion as the perpendicular roots are 

 stronger than those of other Pines, the horizontal roots are weaker, a 

 disadvantage as regards transplanting, which is more than counterbalanced 

 by its firm hold in the soil, whence it is seldom torn up by the 

 roots by storms. In the departments of the Gironde, Landes and 

 Dordogne, the Pine woods afford a most efficacious protection against 

 the encroachments of the sea. Some eighty years ago great apprehension 

 existed of the destruction of the Medoc country by inundation, as the 

 bunks of sand, which are the only barriers against the sea, were 

 observed to be yielding ; the idea then occurred of planting P. Pinaster 

 in order to bind the sand, and the result has been most satisfactory. 

 Introduced towards the end of the sixteenth century into Great 

 Britain, Pinus Pinaster is only useful as an ornamental tree in this 



