236 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



Being an inhabitant of a southern clime, the black or 

 Austrian pine naturally demands a high degree of atmo- 

 spheric warmth, but combined with this it shows a con- 

 siderable capacity for sustaining the severe cold of the 

 hard Continental winter, and it has equal claims with 

 the Scots pine to be classed among the hardy species of 

 forest trees. As regards soil-moisture, it seems to prefer 

 dry situations so long as they are not shallow, and at 

 the same time not superposed on impermeable subsoils 

 hindering the development of the root-system ; otherwise 

 it will thrive on dry soils where even the Scots pine finds 

 difficulty in maintaining itself. Wherever it grows indi- 

 genously, the black pine shows a preference for limy soils, 

 and for dolomitic lime in particular, although its demands 

 in this respect do not prevent its growth being satisfactory 

 on soils of other geognostic origin. Both with reference to 

 mineral strength and to soil-moisture, its demands are even 

 somewhat less than those of the Scots pine, and it must 

 therefore be reckoned as the most easily satisfied species of 

 forest tree growing although not of course luxuriantly, on 

 poor soils, where even the former finds the situation too hot 

 and dry. For the planting up of poor lands, especially those 

 with warm, southern exposures, and of a limy nature, the 

 black or Austrian pine is a most useful tree. 



On soils of fair quality it is better able to stand shade 

 than the Scots pine, and its position as regards demands on 

 light may be assessed at about midway between the light- 

 loving and the shade-bearing species ; on favourable soils and 

 situations it becomes the latter, on unfavourable the former. 



Like the Scots pine, it enters its reproductive age at about 

 thirty years ; its cones ripen in the second autumn, eighteen 

 months after flowering, and the seed is scattered during the 

 following spring. Its germinative power is considerable, 

 good seed showing 75 to 80 per cent, in successful experi- 



