208 



Garden and Forest. 



[May I, 1889. 



self with trees as he does when, in his " Weekly Register " 

 or "Twopenny Trash," he baits the government which prose- 

 cuted, fined and imprisoned him. The subject of tliese notes 

 will be the Pines in tlie Kew Arboretum, of which it will be 

 impossible to do more tiian give a few hasty sketches. In- 

 dependently of isolated examples of many species scattered 

 over the whole of the Kew domain, the Pine collection 

 proper is arranged along the side and end of a fine stretch of 

 ornamental water almost in a line between the great Palm 

 Stove and Sion House, the residence of the Duke of Northum- 

 berland, on the other side of the river Thames. Probably the 

 largest number of species and varieties of the genus Pinus 

 are to be found here — represented, as a rule, by a good group 

 of each species, and a few plants of each form — than in any 

 other garden in existence. The only conspicuous absentees 

 are many of the long-leaved Mexican species which, unfortu- 

 nately, are too tender to witlistand the cold of the Kew win- 

 ters. They, however, thri\X' in the extreme soutli-west of Eng- 

 land, and especially near some of the lakes of northern Italy. 



The Scotch or Wild Pine {P. sylvestris) is a very widely-dis- 

 tributed plant, and stretches from northern and central 

 Europe through the Siberian forest-region as far as the 

 Amoor River. Practical Scotch foresters seem to agree that 

 in a given time this Pine produces more timber than any 

 other tree known to them. I do not know whether any ex- 

 periments on a sufficiently large scale have been made to test 

 the value of Cobbett's statements about the "worthless and 

 villanous Scotch Fir." He sa}s : " I will show that the coun- 

 try would have been worth a hundred million of pounds ster- 

 ling more than it now is, if this sort of tree (the Locust) had, 

 during the last forty years, been cultivated instead of the villanous 

 race of Firs." In any case the Scotch Fir is a handsome tree, 

 with its tall, erect trunk clothed with bark of a warm, red tint. 

 Several curious varieties are growing well at Kew, notably the 

 variety Aurea, which, at the present time, is most conspicuous 

 on account of the bright golden color of its leaves ; when 

 growth commences the yellow disappears, and during the 

 summer and autumn months — indeed, until the winter again 

 arrives — the trees of this variety are hardly distinguishable 

 from the ordinary type. In P. sylvestris argentea the upper 

 halves of the young shoots are creamy white. A form called 

 Globosa is a compact-growing bush with short, glaucous 

 leaves, and so like the New Mexican P. edulis in general aspect 

 that the two have frequently been mistaken for each other by 

 Conifer-loving visitors. 



The Austrian Pine iP. Austriaca) is a fast-growing tree with 

 rigid, sharp-pointed, blackish-green leaves densely clothing the 

 branches. As a imrse or shelter-tree or for forming screens 

 it is an excellent Pine, but the timber is inferior to that of P. 

 sylvestris. Of this there is a golden form, which is very effec- 

 tive on some soils. Some authorities make P. Austriaca a va- 

 riety of the Corsican Pine, P. Laricio, of which a remarkably 

 fine specimen — interesting, also, from an historical standpoint 

 — grows near the principal entrance to the gardens on Kew 

 Green. The Corsican Pine is a very fast grower, and has at- 

 tracted the attention of foresters of late years, and where the 

 Larch has failed on account of disease, it has been recom- 

 mended as the best substitute. It is often, however, difficult 

 to transplant. P. Laricio pygmcea is a dense, compact, dwarf 

 form, apparently never exceeding a man's height. 



The Aleppo Pine {P. Halepensis), a native of the Mediterra- 

 nean region is not a handsome tree, but is interesting as 

 having claims — according to some commentators — to be the 

 Pine or Fir of Scripture. Amongst rocks on the Mediterra- 

 nean shores it thrives where scarcely any other tree can grow, 

 and often forms highly picturesque objects. In Britain it is 

 useless either for timber or landscape purposes. 



Of the Stone Pine {Pinus Pinea) many fine specimens exist 

 at Kew. Those who have learned of the quite recent disap- 

 pearance of " Ravenna's immemorial wood," a forest of Stone 

 Pines whose praises were sung by the classical Latin poets, 

 may well feel surprised that the succession of cold winters 

 which destroyed the famous Ravenna forest spared the Kew 

 plants, so much further north. Not many years ago the eat- 

 able seeds yielded a large revenue to the Italian province. 



Pinus Cembra, the Arole of the high Swiss regions, is a 

 handsome, slow-growing Pine, with deep-green leaves and 

 elongated pyramidal outline. According to Dr. Christ, in his 

 " Flore de la Suisse et ses Origines," the Arole will ere long 

 disappear from Switzerland unless specially protected and 

 planted. Self-sown seedlings, except in one or two of the 

 almost impenetrable forests of central Valais, are very rarely 

 seen ; the mountain black squirrels eat the cones liefore they 

 ripen, and what escape the squirrels are eagerly collected by 

 the peasants for food. The cones ripen the third year, and 



the large seeds take a year or more to germinate. In the Swiss 

 nurseries, to protect the seed-beds from mice, it is necessary 

 to drive stout planks about fifteen inches into the ground, 

 leaving as much aljove the surface ; a fine wire-net is then 

 fastened across. In gardens the Sil)erian form has a distinctive 

 name, but neither in habit nor in cone is there — as far as the 

 fine series of trees at Kew enables one to judge — any difference 

 between plants from that and other outlying regions and those 

 raised from Swiss seed. 



The Mountain Pine [P. montana) embraces a large series of . 

 slightly varying forms, differing widely in habit and general as- 

 pect according to the conditions under which it finds itself. 

 It is a native of sub-alpine regions of central Europe, and is 

 also found in the Pyrenees on both the Spanish and French 

 sides. On rocky, bare ground this Pine lends itself to good 

 purpose for the landscape-gardener. As a rule the species 

 makes a dwarf, densely-branched, more or less procumbent, 

 bush, but the form Uncinata has a tendency to make a neat 

 pyramid. In tlie bottom of the Cirque de Gavarnie, in the 

 Pyrenees, along the stream fed by the Cascade, I noted some 

 years ago a number of trees of this variety, varying from three 

 to ten feet or more, imitating in habit very markedly the Arole 

 of Switzerland. The same habit is also to be seen in the Kew 

 specimens of P. uncinata. 



Certainly one of the most important of all the European 

 Pines is P. Pinaster of the Mediterranean region. It is a hand- 

 some pyramidal tree, with light green leaves, from eight to 

 twelve inches in length, and yellowish cones densely clustered 

 around the base of the current year's shoots. Perhaps no 

 other Pine has become more widely distributed over the earth's 

 surface. It is very common in South Africa, and has become 

 naturalized in many countries. The previously almost worth- 

 less Landes of western France have, by the agency of this 

 tree, been totally changed ; the continuous invasion of the 

 sand dunes has been arrested, and almost the whole popula- 

 tion of a considerable district kept employed in collecting the 

 valuable, resinous products. The tree thrives well enough at 

 Kew ; and it is useful as a sea-side tree, as it will thrive in shift- 

 ing sands. The timber, however, is of little value ; it is soft 

 and soon decays. P. Pyrenaica is a somewhat rare species, 

 not interesting except from a botanical standpoint. A figure 

 and full synonymy are given by Dr. Masters in the Gardeners' 

 Chronicle for September 8th, 1888. 



All the previous species belong to the group with two leaves 

 in a sheath ; the only European Pine which has five leaves to a 

 sheath is P. Peuce, from Macedonia. This last-named tree is a 

 handsome, symmetrical species, evidently allied to the Hima- 

 layan P. excelsa, but with shorter, differently-formed leaves, 

 and almost sessile (not very long-stalked) cones. Both fruit 

 freely enough at Kew, but P. Peuce has not been long enough 

 in the country to allow of any statements being 'made as to its 

 full size under cultivation. By some botanists it is regarded as 

 a geographical form of P. excelsa, the nearest habitat of which 

 is in Afghanistan, a distance of more than 2,200 miles from the 

 Macedonian forests of P. Peuce. 



Kew. George Nicholson. 



New or Little Known Plants. 



Portlandia pterosperma.* 



AMONG the many novelties collected by Dr. Edward 

 Palmer, during the last season, in the region about 

 Guaymas upon the eastern side of the Gulf of California, is 

 a Portlandia which promises to be a valuable acquisition if 

 it can be secured for cultivation. This genus belongs to 

 the RuhiacecB, an order which supplies such ornamental 

 shrubs as the Gardenias, Bouvardias, Rondeletias, etc., and 

 received its name in honor of the Duchess of Portland, who 

 in the last century was a friend and patron ot Botany and 

 made a fine collection of rare and valuable trees and shrubs 

 for the adornment of her grounds at Bulstrode. 



The first species described, P. grandiflora, is a native of 

 Jamaica; was introduced into England in 1775, and was 

 figured in the Botanical Magazine (/. 286) in 1795. It is 

 there spoken of as a beautiful stove plant, not of difficult 

 growth, and readily disposed to flower, blooming when 

 not more than a foot high, its flowers uncommonly large, 

 showy and fragrant. Seven other species have since been 

 added, from the West Indies and Mexico, of which the P. 

 platantha was also figured in the Botanical Magazine 

 {t. 4534) in 1850. This is a similar shrub, with dark-green 



* Portlandia pterosperma, Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad. xxiv. 52. 



