426 



CONIFERS. 



its appearance, and is altogether a very inferior tree to 

 either of the other two varieties. It is also the same 

 which unfortunately predominates in so many artificial 

 plantations, and whose inferior qualities have tended to 

 bring additional discredit upon the Pine ; it also seems to 

 be the variety to which Sir Walter Scott especially refers 

 when he speaks of an inferior kind of Pinus sylvestris 

 introduced from North America. Its cones, which are 

 elongated and pointed, are produced in great abundance, 

 a circumstance that unluckily tends to its extensive dis- 

 semination. 



To the second variety is given the appropriate name 

 of Pinus sylvestris horisontalis, from the horizontal direc- 

 tion of its branches, which spring at nearly a right angle 

 to the trunk. The leaves are broader than those of 

 the first variety, serrulated and not marginated, and of 

 a fine glaucous colour on the under surface. The bark 

 of the trunk is not nearly so rugged, and is of a rich 

 yellowish brown colour. Its cones, also, are rounder, 

 smoother, not so much pointed, and seldom produced 

 in large quantity, like those of the first variety. It is 

 a rapid, free-groAving tree, of a hardy constitution, and 

 attains a large size, not only in granitic but in other 

 soils and situations, and loses its pyramidal form when 

 old. This appears to be the variety producing the finest 

 trees and best timber in the highland forests, and, we 

 think, must be the same as the Splatch Pine mentioned 

 by Mr. Matthew, and so called from the appearance of 

 the rougher part of the bark, which is disposed in flat 

 oblong lumps, and not in deep, longitudinal furrows as 

 in the first variety. Of late years, the nurserymen in 

 the north of Scotland have been particular in collecting 



