THE VINE. 



m 



upwards, but, as they elongate, they take a horizontal 

 direction, and in old trees finally become somewhat pen- 

 dent. The bark is of a fine reddish brown, in some va- 

 rieties deeply furrowed, in others nearly smooth and scaling 

 off in patches. In favourable situations the Wild Pine 

 often attains a height of eighty or one hundred feet, with 

 a trunk from two to four feet in diameter. 



In whatever light we view the Common Pine, whether 

 in relation to its distribution over so large a surface of 

 the globe, its value as a timber in most extensive use 

 in civil as well as in naval architecture, or to its individual 

 form and* aspect as a vegetable production, we may safely 

 affirm it to be one of the most important and interesting 

 of the AbietincE. Its geographical distribution is very ex- 

 tensive, being found in Europe from the Mediterranean 

 on the south to latitudes as high as 70° on the north, and 

 from Spain and Britain on the west, to Siberia in the east. 

 It also occupies regions in the north, the east, and west 

 of Asia, but has not been found in America, unless the 

 species growing at Nootka Sound should prove a stunted 

 variety. In Britain it is the only indigenous species of the 

 fir tribe, and at some distant period, from the remains 

 of large trees, cones, &c, found in peat mosses, appears 

 to have occupied most of the elevated tracts of the king- 

 dom, though the natural forests now remaining are greatly 

 reduced and confined to the mountainous districts of Scot- 

 land. In Ireland, also, where extensive forests once pre- 

 vailed, they no longer exist. In Scotland it grows at 

 a height varying from one thousand four hundred to as 

 much as two thousand seven hundred feet, but at this 

 latter altitude it dwindles almost to a bush ; in the more 

 southern parts of Europe the zone it occupies extends 

 to a greater elevation, being in some countries upwards 



