MARCH] THE NURSERY. 285 



sun at any time during the season, nor keep them in too confined a 

 place ; and on the approach of winter remove them into the green- 

 house, or place them under the protection of glasses, and so treat 

 them for two years, without removing them out of the seed-box. 

 Then, early in April, transplant 'them carefully into separate pots, 

 treating them all this time, and for two or three years more, as you 

 do green-house plants ; after which turn some of them with the earth 

 out of the pots, and plant them in dry warm exposures. 



The Pinus pinea, or Italian stone pine, grows to a considerable 

 height, and is cultivated chiefly for its nuts and the beauty of its 

 foliage. In Italy and the southern parts of Europe, the kernels are 

 frequently served up in desserts during the winter season, and are as 

 sweet as almonds, but have a slight flavor of turpentine. The cones 

 are generally four or five inches long, and when for some time ex- 

 posed to the sun, they open and drop out the nuts, which should be 

 sown towards the latter end of March, in drills, and covered about 

 half or three-quarters of an inch deep ; when they have had one or 

 two years' growth in these rows, cut their tap-roots as directed for 

 walnuts, on page 282, and the next year you may transplant them 

 about the first week in April, either into nursery-rows, at greater dis- 

 tances, or where they are to remain. 



The Pinus cimbra, or Siberian stone pine. There is a variety of 

 this that grows in Switzerland, and higher up the Alps than any 

 other pine, and is found on elevations where the larch will not grow. 

 The stones are shorter than those of the Italian pine, and full as 

 thick. The wood is short, having scarcely any grain, and very fit 

 for the carver. The peasants of the Tyrol, where this tree abounds, 

 make various sorts of carved works with the wood, which they dis- 

 pose of in Switzerland among the common people, who are fond of 

 the resinous smell which it exhales. Both the varieties may be cul- 

 tivated in the same manner as directed for the Italian stone pine. 



All the other species and varieties of pines and firs may be suc- 

 cessfully raised in the following manner : 



Being provided with good fresh seeds, for on this everything de- 

 pends, prepare for their reception, as early in the spring as your 

 ground will work free and light, and pulverize finely in the working, 

 beds three or four feet wide, of rich loamy ground, by no means sub- 

 ject to burn or become parched with the summer heats ; then sow the 

 seeds on the surface, so thick as that you may expect/after all reason- 

 able allowances for defective seeds, &c., at least a plant on every inch 

 square of the ground, or at the rate of a pound of good seed to a 

 bed three feet and a half wide and sixty long. The sowing of them 

 so thick is indispensable, for unless they completely cover the sur- 

 face, they will, if not carefully shaded, be destroyed in their infant 

 state by the summer heat ; early sowing is also necessary, for they 

 have nothing to apprehend from subsequent frosts, that their roots 

 may be established before the heat overtakes them. After the seeds 

 are sown, sift over the smaller sized kinds about a quarter of an inch 

 of fine, rich, light, mould, and over the larger, nearly half an inch, 

 then place over the beds nets made for that purpose, or any old small- 



