85 



grains. The seed of the largest cones gave a 

 germinating capacity of 43 per cent, the smallest 

 39 per cent., thus constituting an average of 

 41 per cent. The young banksiana plants are 

 not affected by the needle-shedding fungus ; 

 damage from forest animals heals easily, and 

 they grow with upward tending branches after 

 the manner of spruce, so that they do not 

 encroach on other underplanted timber trees, 

 and costly branch prunings can be dispensed 

 with. The oldest plants in Grafrath show that 

 the Banksian pines, by reason of their shorter 

 needles (which from the fifteenth year is even 

 shorter than in the case of the native pines) is 

 quite insensitive to snowfall. In view of these 

 extraordinary sylvicultural qualities its value as a 

 timber takes only second place. It would appear 

 that, as the result of imperfectly understood 

 American publications, errors have crept in 

 which may remain a long time unrecognised. 

 Mayr has, on the other hand, demonstrated 

 that the timber of the Pinus banksiana is quite 

 equal to that of European pines. It was 

 found that 22 metres was the greatest height 

 development in the United States, and, accord- 

 ing to the latest reports from Canada, 1 the 

 banksiana attains the same height in that 

 country as the American red pine, Pinus 



1 From "Rod and Gun in Canada," 1902, p. 17, Pinus 

 banksiana. 



