3 



Wiltsh 



stance, which notwithstanding may occur only in chalky soils, as I have had no experience of other 

 situations.) In about five or six years, the branches will have met, and begun to interfere Avith each 

 other; pruning will now be necessary, but it is not to be done without great caution, and the loAver 

 branches only are to be taken away. The operation ought to be performed in September, at which 

 time there will be no danger of the wounds bleeding too much. It should be repeated every other 

 year, leaving all the upper branches entire; the lower should be cut close to the stem. As these trees 

 never put forth new shoots where they are pruned, nor from below that part, so they suffer more from 

 amputation than others. At the expiration of twelve or fourteen years, no more pruning will be neces- 

 sary, for such branches as do not enjoy a free access of air, will die; but if the young trees have made 

 good progress, it may be proper to thin them occasionally. The gardener ought to begin with those 

 which are in the middle of the plantation, in order that they may' enjoy the shelter of those which are 

 on the outside, for a time, and then acquire strength before the whole number arc exposed to the 

 admission of a greater current of cold air. When the plantations are thinned the roots should not be 

 torn up, lest the trees which are left standing be injured; as these roots will not shoot again, no disad- 

 vantage can arise from suffering them to decay in the earth. As the upright growth of these Firs renders 

 their wood the more valuable, they should be left pretty close together, in order to draw each other up. 

 Some trees will shoot to the height of twenty feet with perfect straightness. If they be left eight feet 

 asunder each way, there will be quite sufficient room for their growth. 



It is from P. ^yhe^tru that the red Deal is obtained, as we are informed by Mr. Coxe. The 

 white is from P. AMe^, which, he says, is the most demanded, because no country produces it in 

 such quantities as Christiania and its vicinity. One tree yields three pieces of timber eleven or twelve 

 feet in length, and is usually sawed into three planks. Before it arrives at its greatest perfection, 

 however, a tree must generally attain seventy or eighty years growth. (See Northern Tour, vol. v. p. 3f . 



oct, edit.) I am indebted to Mr. Davis, of ___ ^^ _^_ 



as well as on the produce of other species of Pines, which the reader will find in another part of this 

 work. It is surprising that this species is not more cultivated on waste grounds in several parts of 

 Great Britain, as the few planted on Bagshot and Hounslow Heaths, &c. succeed so well. I have 

 observed it thrives least on chalky land; but even there it does as well, if not better, than any other 

 species, provided the ground be not disturbed about its roots. The larva of an insect, (which I suppose 

 to be one of the under mentioned Vhal^im, although I have not jet had an opportunity of watching 

 its transformation to determine the species^ injures the young plantations of this tree. The larva 

 introduces itself into the pith, or medulla of the young shoots on which it feeds, and which are soon 

 destroyed by it. I have seen several young trees in the plantations of Henry William Portman, Esq. 

 at Bryanston, Dorset, bearing marks of the injury alluded to ; and the same circumstance I observed in 

 the year 1801, in the large trees of this species In the plantation of WiUiam Beckford, Esq. at Fonthill, 

 Wilts. The first volume of the Museum Ru^tiacm contains a paper on this subject. 



The following Insects are observed to take up their abode on P. sylve^tru, vi%. Phal^iia sylvatka. 

 P. catenata. P. ^etlcornu. P. teMacea. P. rednorum. Tenthredo pennacea, T. erythrocephala. Aphu 

 Pi?ii. Curculio PmL C. ^ptejitrionalu . BermeMe^ pra;mormd. D. pijiiperda.'^ {Ip^ piniperda of 

 Marsham.) Cimcx pinetorum, and Acarud ruber. 



It has been supposed, from the authority of Duhamel, that P. ^ylveMru grows in St. Domingo, but 

 the Pine sent from that island is the P. occidentalu of Swartz, hereafter to be mentioned. 



There is a specimen in the Banksian collection, marked " Pimu Tatarica, from Paine's Hill," which 

 is distinguished from P. 4ylveMru, in Dr. Solander s description, solely by the colour of the branches. 



h ' 



1 



' Since writing the above I find it to be Berme^tes piniperda, Linn. Ips piniperda, Marsham, Entom. Brit. 57. 



. " Linn^us sajs of this species, « Habitat in Europe ramidis inferiorihus pini, quos perforata exsiccat, undc nature hortulanus 



m hac arbore." But its depredations are not confined to the lower branches : for in the extensive plantations of Mr. Beckford, at 



Fonthill, so much of the medulla of the young shoots has been eaten through by this insect, that many fine trees have been almost 



destroyed; and in the year IBOI, when I observed this fact, apprehensions were entertained of several others suffering the like fate. 



