132 PINACE^. 



forms or varieties of tlie Strobus Pine there is sometliing so very appre- 

 ciable in the port and features, something so characteristic in the dis- 

 position of the branches, something so pecuHar in the summer and 

 winter disposition of the leaves, and something so yet more remarkable 

 in the ligneous tissues and resinous juices of all of them when produced 

 imder precisely the same conditions ; that by a summary system of 

 stenography they can all be described at once. 



Leaves, generally five in a sheath, exceptionally three, four, six, or 

 seven ; rarely more or less in number ; from three to fifteen inches 

 long, generally spreading in summer, and drooping in winter ; more or 

 less slender, soft, glaucous, silvery, curved, twisted, and channelled; 

 and in colour light, dark, greyish, bluish, whitish, silvery, or shining 

 green. 



Cones, from three to fifteen inches long, and from one to four 

 inches diameter at broadest part ; cylindrical in form, long and rope- 

 like, slightly tapering to the point ; singly, twos, threes, or in whorls 

 or clusters upon the branches ; more or less curved, exceptionally 

 straight, but very rarely entirely so ; some horizontally disposed, but 

 most of them drooping ; green when young, but transforming them- 

 selves to a brownish colour when they arrive at maturity : the scales are 

 thin, numerous, and beautifully overlaying or imbricated ; the seeds 

 generally small, but of various sizes, and all of them furnished with a 

 comparatively large winged appendage. 



Branches, in whorls, verticillately disposed on the stem, but some- 

 what enlarged and twisted at the junction ; rather thinly clothed with 

 foliage ; the bark smooth and shining when young, when old smooth 

 and ashy-coloured. 



The Leaves of the prototype Strolms are from three to five inches 

 long, of a light bluish-green colour : the Cones are from five to seven 

 inches long, and from one to one-and-a-half inches broad, cylindrical 

 in form but tapering to point. There is not one of the quasi-species, 

 or varieties of it so thoroughly hardy, and accommodating as to soil 

 and situation, and so well adapted for general planting as a timber tree 

 in this coiintry, as is this Strobus Pine itself ; though it, and all its 

 progeny are vastly inferior to such a pine as the Corsican. Of its 

 quasi-species none is better adapted for general planting than its Indian 

 form excelsa ; which grows well in a variety of soils and is sufficiently 

 hardy for our climate : most of its large and most beautiful forms and 

 varieties are much too tender for the British Isles ; while some of the 

 more dwarf and mountaia forms, are more hardy and accommodating. 



