257 



N. Ord. CONIFERS. 

 Tribe Pinets. 



Genus Pinus, Linn. 



257. Pinus sylvestris, Linn., Sp. Plant., ed. I, p. 1000 (1753). 



Scotch Fir. 



Figures. Woodville, t. 1; Steph. & Ch., t. 73; Nees, t. 80; Berg and 

 Sch., t. 8 d ; Hayne, xiv, t. 9 ; Syme, E., Bot., viii, 1. 1380 ; Reicuenb., 

 Jc. Fl. Germ., xi, t. 521 ; Lambert, Pinus, 1. 1 ; Nees, Gen. Fl. Germ. ; 

 Richard, Comm. de Conif., t. 11. 



Description. A tall tree reaching under favorable conditions 

 70 or 80 feet in height, with a rounded or rather flat spreading 

 somewhat dense head ; trunk rather slender, usually simple, rarely 

 reaching 10 or 12 feet in circumference, .branches numerous, 

 irregular, spreading, tortuous, bark reddish-grey, deeply fissured, 

 breaking off in flaky pieces. Leaves in twos, the fascicle sur- 

 rounded at the base by a sheath of scales which become torn and 

 fimbriated, evergreen, 2 3 inches long, linear- subulate, stiff, 

 sharply pointed, minutely serrulate on the margin, channelled 

 above, convex beneath, slightly glaucous, smooth. Male catkins 

 small, about g inch long, ovoid, shortly stalked, with a few 

 papery, orange-coloured bracts at the base, crowded upon the 

 lower part of a young branch which is terminated by a leaf-bud 

 afterwards growing out into a shoot ; anthers numerous in each 

 catkin, very shortly stalked, closely placed on the slender axis, 

 2 -celled, cells placed on the lower surface of the connective which 

 is slightly prolonged beyond them into a membranous tongue, 

 dehiscing by wide longitudinal openings, pollen-grains bright 

 yellow, globose with two protrusions, giving the appearance of 

 being in threes. Female cones usually 2 or 3 together, each 

 terminating a young shoot, and surrounded at the base by scales 

 and whorls of young leaf-fascicles in their sheaths, roundish-ovoid, 

 about J inch long, at first erect ; bracts membranous, roundish, 

 deciduous, carpellary scales exceeding the bracts, fleshy, thick- 



