60 DISTRIBUTION OF 



and not so mucli pointed. The plant is also more 

 hardy, grows more freely in almost any soil, and 

 quickly arrives at a considerable size." Of the 

 truth of this assertion of Mr Don's, I am perfectly 

 satisfied, although many botanists will not allow 

 that these two species are really distinct ; they say 

 that soil and situation have the effect of changing, 

 in a great measure, the external appearance of 

 this tree; but those who so assert cannot have 

 had much experience of them. I have myself 

 seen, and that very often, the two distinct species 

 growing in the same plantation, and close to 

 one another ; now, were it the case that soil and 

 situation changed the external appearance of the 

 trees, why were they found to have different ex- 

 ternal appearances when growing upon the same 

 soil and site ? 



There is another feature which is very remark- 

 able in the true pine as compared with the common 

 one, which is this. The boll of the true pine, or 

 Bonnet fir, when standing singly in a park, rises to 

 a considerable height before it sends off any hori- 

 zontal branches ; the branches, as it were, form a 

 bonnet on the top of a pole, whence the origin of the 

 name of bonnet fir ; whereas the boll of the common 

 sort, if left to grow singly upon a park or lawn, 

 sends out branches almost from the very ground. 



The Scots fir, in its natural state, is found clus- 

 tering together in one mass, seldom associating with 



