BRITISH FOREST TREES 235 



CONIFERS. A. Indigenous to Europe. 



i. THE BLACK, AUSTRIAN, OR CORSICAN PINE l (Finns 

 Nigricans, Host. = P. Austriaca, Hoss. = P. LARICIO, Poir., 

 Var. AUSTRIACA, Endl.). This pine, two-leafed like the Scots 

 pine, extends from Spain across southern Europe to Asia 

 Minor, and in the specially recognised former variety forms 

 extensive pure forests in lower Austria, and south-east towards 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the first-named localities it 

 ascends the mountains to 3,000 feet, but is in general indige- 

 nous to the outlying hills and the gently undulating plateaux 

 rather than on the steep mountain slopes in the inner ranges. 

 In its true home it attains, with good straight growth, a height 

 of a hundred feet and a girth of over ten feet at breast-height, 

 with dark, blackish-grey, deep-fissured bark. Its crown is 

 conical, and densely foliaged during the youthful period of 

 growth, the leaves being retained for three to four years ; but 

 with advancing years it becomes rounded off to a semi- 

 circular or ovoid contour, with the thick foliage confined to 

 the younger twigs. The further northwards it is removed 

 from the region to which it is indigenous, the weaker becomes 

 its development of bole, and the stronger its tendency to 

 crown-formation and ramification generally. In southern 

 Germany its growth in height is by no means equal to that 

 of the Scots pine. 



Its root-development is energetic and extensive, being 

 similar to that of the Scots pine, but with greater power of 

 accommodating itself to the nature of the soil and sub-soil, 

 of throwing out strong horizontal roots, and of sending rami- 

 fications from these deep down into the soil and sub-soil. 



1 For fuller details of this species see the author's " Report on the 

 nn Pine" in the Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society for 1876. (Fourth Series, V,,l. VIII., pp. 220-238.) 



