PINUS, OR TIIK TRUE PINKS. 59 



3 to 5 inclios long. Sheaths, rather short, and formed of several 

 hroad scales, fringed or jagged at the ends. Buds,co\ereA with 

 imbricated, non-resinous scales, branches, rather long, spread- 

 ing, and of an ashy-gray colour ; branchlets slender and rather 

 smooth. Cones, terminal, very numerous, and either solitary or 

 in sub-vertical 'clusters, on short, stout foot-stalks, more or less 

 pendent, and about one and a half inch long, rounded at the 

 base, and with the upper part regularly tapering into a conical 

 point. Scales, of a linear-oblong shape, slightly thickened along 

 the upper part, rhomboid on the exposed part, closely imbri- 

 cated, small, and nearly all of an equal size ; with a slender, 

 elevated line across the middle of the lozenge-shaped termina- 

 tion, and a little prickle in the centre, which soon disappears. 

 Seeds, very small, with a membranous wing of a rusty-brown 

 colour, regularly striated with reddish-brown, and three times 

 the length of the seed ; seed-leaves short and mostly in sixes. 

 It forms a tree 40 feet high, with a cylindrical stem covered 

 with a smooth bark, of an ashy-gray colour, and, according to 

 Professor Zuccarini, it is found all over Japan, but is most rare 

 in the southern provinces, where it is generally cultivated. In 

 the middle part of the empire it is planted in masses, and forms 

 vast woods, along with Pinus Massoniana, which it very much 

 resembles. In the south, near Nagasaki, only a few solitary 

 specimens are seen, generally 40 feet or more high, while in 

 the more northern parts it is very abundant, especially on the 

 mountain slopes, to a height of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet of eleva- 

 tion. It also occurs at the bottom of valleys, and on the road 

 from Ohosaka to Yeddo, where there are large thickets of it, 

 and Pinus Massoniana, standing above the marshy rice-fields ; 

 the latter species is, however, more especially a valley plant, 

 becoming a mere bush at a height of 3,500 feet above the sea. 

 The timber is of great excellence, and its resin is largely in 

 request for the plasters and salves used by the Japanese in 

 healing wounds and sores. In pulmonary complaints they also 

 hold it to be a specific, and make India and China ink from the 

 soot of both Pinus densiflora and P. Massoniana. 



The Japanese call this Fir " Me-Matsu" (female Pine), on 



