42 THE WOODLANDS. 



the lines of Churchill are as appropriate to it in this 

 situation as in others : 



" That pine of mountain race, 

 The fir, the Scotch fir, never out of place." 



The indigenous pine forests of Scotland have lost 

 their original magnitude and splendour. The sixteen 

 square miles of Rothiemurchus, the wide expanse of 

 Rannoch, are to a large extent dreams of the past, 

 but much of their old glory still attaches to the forests 

 of the Dee, where overhead, 



" At every impulse of the moving breeze, 

 The fir grove murmurs with a sea-like sound." 



In Lapland and Norway it is customary in seasons 

 of scarcity to kiln- dry the inner bark of the Scotch fir 

 and grind it, mixed with oats, into meal. This meal 

 is formed into flat cakes, " covering the bottom of a 

 girdle or frying-pan, and thin as a sheet of paper, 

 being put on the girdle in nearly a fluid state/' 



The Weymouth pine has been introduced into 

 Britain for a century and a half, and stands the 

 climate of England better than that of Scotland. 

 The leaves aie in clusters of five, by which the tree 

 may be distinguished. 



