464 



HISTORY OF THE VKGETABLE KINGDOM. 



years ago, by the celebrated Lord President 

 Forbes. The successive thinnings had more than 

 repaid the enclosing and planting ; and when the 

 timber was cut down, about twenty years since, 

 it yielded several times as much rent per acre, 

 for every year it had stood, as the unplanted part 

 of the muir let at the time when it was cut down. 

 Large plantations of pines have been made in 

 England during tlie last thirty years ; and thus 

 some of our barren lands, which were formerly 

 utterly worthless, have become valuable additions 

 to the national wealth. Sometimes these plan- 

 tations have been formed without due investiga- 

 tion; and through this, some species of fir, which 

 are useless except for fuel, have been raised in 

 large quantities. On the other hand, the pro- 

 perties of the several species have been accurately 

 studied by some plantere; and experiments, upon 

 a large scale, have been made to determine the 

 relative value of the various sorts. At Dropmore, 

 in Buckinghamshire, a place which, thirty years 

 ago, was a most desolate and barren Iieath, Lord 

 Grenville has fonned the most valuable fir plan- 

 tations ; and he has established a garden of the 

 genus pimis, in which lie has collected almost 

 every known species from all quarters of the 

 globe. The late Bishop Heber, who was hon- 

 oured with the friendship of that justly venerated 

 nobleman, had a commission from him to search 

 out any new species of the pines of India ; and 

 the following extract of a letter from this ami- 

 able prelate, addressed to his Lordship, giving an 

 account of the pines of the Himalaya mountains, 

 will show tlie solicitude with which he dis- 

 charged Ills trust : — 



" A visit which I paid to those glorious moun- 

 tains, in November and December last, was 

 unfortunately too much limited by the short time 

 at my disposal, and by the advanced season, to 

 admit of my penetrating far into their recesses ; 

 nor am I so fortunate as to be able to examine 

 their productions with tlie eye of a botanist. But 

 though the woods are very noble, and the general 

 scenery possesses a degree of magnificence such 

 as I had never before cither seen or (I may say) 

 imagined, the species of pine which I was able 

 to distinguish were not numerous. Tlie most 

 common is a tall and stately, but brittle, fir, in 

 its general character not unlike the Scottish, but 

 with a more branching head, which, in some 

 degree, resembles that of the Italian pine. An- 

 other, and of less frequent occurrence, is a splen- 

 did tree, witli gigantic arms and dark narrow 

 leaves, wliich is accounted sacred, and chiefly 

 seen in the neighbourhood of ancient Hindoo 

 temples, and which struck my unscientific eye 

 as very nearly resembling the cedar of Lebanon. 

 But these I found flourishing at near nine thou- 

 sand feet above the level of the sea, and where 

 the frost was as severe at night as is usually met 

 with at the same season in England. But 



between this, which was the greatest height that 

 I climbed, and the limit of perpetual snow, there 

 is doubtless ample space for many other species 

 of plants, to some of which a Dropmore winter 

 must be a season of vernal mildness." 



The pines of the Himalaya mountains were 

 found at the height of nine thousand feet above 

 the level of the sea. The elevation at which the 

 pine grows in tropical countries is very remark- 

 able. Humboldt describes the tliird zone of the 

 Peak of TenerifFe, the region of firs, as at nine 

 liundred toises of absolute height (about five 

 thousand seven hundred and sixty feet); and he 

 says that, in the Cordilleras of New Spain, under 

 the torrid zone, the Mexican pines reach as high 

 as two thousand toises (about twelve thousand 

 eight hundred feet). 



The other European species of the pine are : 

 The Corsican (p. laricio), which is nearly allied 

 in its character to the Scotch pine, but is a much 

 handsomer and finer tree. Professor Thouin 

 considers it equally hardy with the Scotch pine; 

 its wood is more weiglity and resinous, and con- 

 sequently more compact, stronger, and more 

 flexible. It grows wild on the summits of tlie 

 highest mountains of Coreica. The cluster pine 

 (p. pinaster), is a grand and picturesque tree; 

 and is a great favourite with the Roman and 

 Florentine painters. Tlie timber is of less value 

 than that of the others : in Switzerland, it is cut 

 into shingles for roofing houses, &c. As an orna- 

 mental tree it is well deserving of culture, but 

 not for its timber. Tlie stone pine (p. pinea), 

 is very common in the south of Italy. At 

 Ravenna there is an extensive forest of this 

 species, and they are commonly planted around 

 the villas, and in the gardens at Rome and 

 Florence. The seeds of this and the cluster pine 

 are eaten throughout Italy, both by the poor and 

 rich. They are as sweet as almonds, but partake 

 slightly of a turpentine flavour. The wood is 

 not so resinous as that of most of the other 

 species; and the tree can only be considered as 

 valuable for its effect in tlie landscape. The 

 Siberian pine (p. cembraj, the tanncnbmim of 

 Byron's Chiide Harold, and the aphemousli pine 

 of Harte, grows higher up the Alps than other 

 pines; and is even found at elevations where the 

 larch will not grow. The wood is very soft, and 

 having scarcely any grain, ia very fit for the 

 carver. The peasants of the Tyrol, where this 

 tree abounds, make various sorts of carved works 

 with the wood, wliieh they dispose of in Switzer- 

 land among the common people, who are fond of 

 the resinous smell which it exhales. The Canary 

 pine (p. canariensis), grows in the high moun- 

 tains of the Canary islands, at an elevation coiTCS- 

 ponding to the coldest parts of Scotland. The 

 wood is resinous, highly inflammable, and is well 

 adapted for building material, as it lasts for ages. 

 Of American species of the pine, Michaux 



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