94 HARDY CONlFEJlOUS TREES. 



Grenvtllece, can only be recognised as forms of this very vari- 

 able species. 



P. monticola, Douglas. Vancouver Island, British 

 Columbia, Oregon to California. 1S31. A distinct and 

 beautiful hardy pine, that is well distinguished by its narrow 

 branch spread and silvery-green foliage. In a specimen of 80 

 feet in height the branch spread is only 18 feet, though ample 

 space has been allowed for development. The leaves are about 

 3 inches long, arranged in fives, rather rigid and rough on the 

 margin. Cones are produced plentifully all over the tree, and 

 resemble greatly those of P. Strobus, but they are smaller 

 generally, being 5 inches long, nearly 2 inches in diameter, and 

 cylindrical in shape. They are usually bent or curved. A 

 peculiarity of the bark is that it splits into square plates, but 

 is never ragged or untidy, and is of a pleasing ash-grey 

 colour on the younger, and darker on the older portions. 

 It produces timber rapidly, a specimen at Esher in Surrey 

 having attained to fully 70 feet in height in forty years, and 

 with a clean and well rounded bole that girths 7 feet at a 

 yard from the ground. In dampish, loamy, or sandy soil 

 it grows well. 



As a timber-producing tree P. monticola is likely to attract 

 attention, the quality of that produced in two widely different 

 parts of this country being such as to warrant us in speaking 

 highly of it. The tree is very hardy, several of the healthiest 

 specimens I have seen being in the environs of Edinburgh. 

 A variety with stouter and broader leaves and having the 

 young cones purple instead of pale green as in the species, 

 has been named P. monticola porphyrocarpa (Murray). 



P. muricata, Don. {Synonym: P. Edgariana, 

 Hartweg.) California. 1846. This is a very distinct tree 

 not only from the massive well-rounded top, but on account 

 of the large and informly arranged branches, which in most 

 specimens break out from the main stem at a few feet from 

 ground level. The thickly clustered, prickly cones, which 

 adhere so firmly to the stem and branches that a good knock 

 is required to free them, are unlike those of almost any other 



