142 FAMILIAR TREES 



head becomes more flat, spreading itself like a canopy, which is a 

 form equally becoming ; and thus we see what beauty may result from 

 a tree with a round head, and without lateral branches, which re- 

 quires, indeed, a good example to prove. When we look on an Ash 

 or an Elm from which the lateral branches have been stripped, as 

 is the practice in some countries, we are apt to think that no tree 

 with a head placed on a long stem can be beautiful ; yet in Nature's 

 hands, which can mould so many forms of beauty, it may easily be 

 effected." 



Valued for its shade, it is sometimes called 

 the Umbrella Pine, the "Pin Parasol" of Southern 

 France, though this name now belongs rather to 

 the Japanese Sciadop'itys verticilla'ta S. & Z. 

 The Stone Pine is more abundant on the Riviera 

 di Levante than on the Riviera di Ponente ; but,. 

 says the author of " Riviera Nature Notes," 



" If the Riviera di Ponente has few Stone Pines, we make up for 

 the deficiency by possessing the finest specimen of the tree. The 

 famous Pin de Bertaud, which grows on the high-road between 

 Cogolin and St. Tropez, is the largest in Europe at least, so the 

 guide books say. 



"What a strange region is this, where the tropic and the Arctic 

 floras meet ; where the Pine, son of the snowy north, stands side by 

 side wide with the Palm, daughter of the burning south ! Here is 

 realised the dream of Heine's Fir Tree : 



" ' Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam 

 Im Norden auf Kahler Hoh ; 

 Ihn schla/efert, mit weisser Decke 

 Umhullen ihn Eis und Schnee. 



" ' Er trua/emt von einer Palme 

 Die fern in Morgenland 

 Einsam und schweigend trauert 

 Auf brennender Felsenwand.' " 



Writers, slavishly copying one another, say that 

 the Stone Pine was cultivated in England previous 



