238 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



Bordeaux, and throughout the enormous sand-dunes stretch- 

 ing along the shores of the Bay of Biscay. Favoured by the 

 warm southern climate, its production of resin is very con- 

 siderable, yielding the French turpentine of commerce. It is 

 on the whole little suited for growth in the colder climate of 

 Britain, except perhaps in the south of England. Early 

 frosts in autumn often find its shoots with the wood not 

 properly formed and ripened into hard wood, but in our 

 insular climate its growth in height is vigorous and satis- 

 factory wherever it is protected from frost. 



Its root system resembles that of the Scots pine, and its 

 demands on soil are not great. It shows a preference for 

 light and dry sandy soils, where the tap-root can be developed 

 without hindrance, and where, the annual period of vegeta- 

 tion being somewhat shorter than on those of a more loamy 

 or clayey description, it has a better chance of hardening the 

 wood in the young shoots and branches. It enters the re- 

 productive period about the twentieth year ; its seed is some- 

 what larger than that of the black pine. It improves the 

 soil considerably, having a somewhat dense foliage, retained 

 for three or four years. 



3. CEMBRAN PINE (PINUS CEMBRA, L.) is found in the Alps 

 and Carpathians at elevations above those of spruce and 

 larch, ranging from about 2,300 feet to 7,500 feet, and also 

 both on the plains and mountains of Russia and Siberia. 

 It attains in Alpine districts a height of sixty to seventy feet, 

 and a girth up to fifteen feet at breast-height. Its crown is 

 conical in youth, then somewhat cylindrical in middle-age, 

 and finally irregularly ovate in form throughout the more 

 advanced periods of growth ; its foliage is dense rather than 

 sparse, the leaves being persistent for four or five years. Its 

 root-system is extensive and deep-reaching, a necessity of 

 the exposed localities to which it is indigenous. Although 

 its timber is of good quality, and often beautiful in colour 



