PINUS SYLVESTKIS. 379 



winter and the burning sun and dry winds of Kansas, the White Pine 

 flourishes also as no other exotic Conifer flourishes in central Europe ; 

 and in the gardens of northern Italy it is as beautiful as in the forests 

 of Michigan and Minnesota."* 



The specific name Strobus, appears to have been taken by Linnaeus 

 from Pliny, w.ho mentions a tree called Strobus, indigenous to Carmania, 

 a province of ancient Persia, where it was sought after for fumigating 

 or incense. It is not known what tree this was. 



Pinus sylvestris. 



A tree of variable dimensions, according to locality and environment ; in 

 favourable situations attaining a height of 80 100 feet with a trunk 2- 4 

 feet in diameter, usually free of branches for two-thirds or more of the 

 height and with a narrowly pyramidal head, but in old age with a rather 

 broad rounded top. Bark of trunk smooth or but slightly roughened, and 

 with a reddish tinge especially along the upper portion, but rugged and 

 irregularly fissured in old age. Branches in pseudo-whorls of three six, 

 usually horizontal, the lowermost sometimes depressed or even sub-pendulous, 

 whilst those near the top are ascending. Branchlets at first green, changing 

 to reddish brown at the end of the second year. Buds conic-cylindric, 

 acute, 0*25 0'5 inch long, pale chestnut-brown, usually covered with a film 

 of whitish resin ; the perulse lanceolate, acuminate, and minutely ciliolate. 

 Leaves geminate, persistent three four years, inserted on spirally arranged 

 cortical pulvini, rigid and straight, but often curved or twisted, 

 1'5 to 3 'inches long, semi-terete with a callous tip, at first bluish or 

 glaucous green, changing with age to dull dark green; basal sheath 

 about one-third of an inch long, wrinkled and blackish. Staminate 

 flowers in dense clusters near the end of branchlets of the preceding 

 year, ovoid-cylindric, about 0*25 inch long, sulphur-yellow. Cones ovoid, 

 2 3 inches long and 1 1*25 inch in diameter above the base; scales 

 narrowly oblong, terminating in a rhomboidal thickening on the dorsal 

 side, with a transverse keel and short pyramidal umbo.f 



Finns sylvestris, Linn?eus, Sp. Plant. II. 1000 (1753). Lambert, Genus Pinus, I. 1, 

 t. 1. (1803). L C. Richard, Mem. sur les Conif. 55 (1826). London, Arb. et 

 Frut. Brit. IV. 2153, with tigs. (1838). Link in Linnrea, XV. 484 (1841). Endlicher, 

 Synops. Conif. 171 (1847). Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 480. Parlatore, D. C. 

 Prodr. 385. Willkomm, Forstl. Fl. ed. II. 193. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 257. 

 Beissner, Nadelholzk. 225, with figs. Sowerby, Eng. Bot. VI. (1866), p. 264. 

 Hooker fil, Fl. Brit. Isles, ed. III. p. 380. Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 240. 

 And many others. 



Eng. Scots Pine, I Scotch Fir, Wild Pine. Fr. Pin de Geneve, Pin de Riga. 

 Pin silvestre. Germ. Gemeine Kiefer, Fohre, Kienbaum, and others. Span. Pino 

 albar. Probably the n-irvQ aypia of Theophrastus. 



The varieties of Pinus sylvestris are exceedingly numerous ; they 

 admit of being arranged into two groups local or geographical, and 

 those that have originated under cultivation. As scarcely any of these 

 varieties possess any special interest for British forestry and arboriculture, 

 the briefest mention of them in this place must suffice ; fuller 

 descriptions of them are given in Willkomm's " Forstliche Flora " and 

 Beissner's "Handbuch der Nadelholzkunde." 



* Garden and Forest, X. 460. 



t The apophysis of the seed scale of Pinus sylvestris is very variable in form in the different 

 regions over which it is spread. 



The name used by Sir Walter Scott and since taken up in Scotland generally. 



