IO2 . 



where it is indigenous, are said to be proud of their 

 name, which means frank or free, and they have vast 

 forests of their noble Pine. 



It peculiarly enjoys elevated banks, and grows 

 well in dry, airy parks not much exposed to trying 

 winds ; and it likes a soil deep and dry and not re- 

 tentive, where its roots can get down without inter- 

 ruption. 



The principal division of Pines seems to be into 

 what are called cone-bearing, and those called berry, 

 or fruit-bearing ; and of each I may name a few par- 

 ticularly worthy of attention. 



Abies Douglasii, the Douglas Columbian Fir, is one 

 of the handsomest, hardiest, and quickest growing 

 introduced into Ireland. It is not half a century 

 since Douglas seemed to have somewhat anticipated 

 his untimely death in a buffalo-pit in the far West, 

 when he wrote about this and other beautiful trees of 

 his discovery, as he says, " lest he should never see his 

 friends, to tell them verbally of these beautiful and 

 immensely large trees." Of rapid growth, and having 

 attained a height of about three hundred feet in 

 Columbian valleys, it has already reached to nearly 

 one hundred in Great Britain. It is not very fasti- 

 dious as to soil or situation, provided the soil be in a 

 healthy condition, with subsoil cool and porous. I 

 have seen it luxuriate in alluvial vales of Ireland, 

 and in romantic glens and mountain dells of Scot- 

 land, and in Wales in debris of slate-rocks, and many 



