428 CONIFERS. 



full dimensions in a British climate, and whose timber is 

 of a quality likely to repay the planter, when cultivated 

 upon an extensive scale. 



The first to which we direct the attention of our readers 

 is the Pinus imcinata, mentioned by Captain S. E. Cook, 

 now Widdrington, in his " Sketches in Spain," which, 

 though nearly allied to the Pinus sylvestris, and supposed 

 by Loudon to be identical with the Pinus sylvestris mughus 

 of botanists, possesses characters sufficiently marked and 

 important to entitle it to rank as a distinct species. It 

 is a native of the Pyrenees, inhabiting the highest zone, 

 or line of forest vegetation, on both sides of that chain 

 of mountains, for Captain Widdrington remarks, " though 

 mixed at first with the Abies (picea) pectinata, (silver 

 fir,) and the Pinus sylvestris, it gradually, as you ascend, 

 leaves them below, and occupies exclusively the Siberian 

 region of the high or central Pyrenees." Besides this 

 hardiness of constitution, which points it out as a tree 

 admirably adapted for our highland districts and lofty 

 elevations, it possesses many other qualities which render 

 its cultivation upon an extensive scale particularly desi- 

 rable, for the same author informs us that it grows to 

 a noble size with a bold, commanding form, and a massive 

 foliage of a deeper green than that of Pinus sylvestris, so 

 much so as to be distinguished by the Spanish woodmen 

 by the appellation of Pino negro, the two varieties of the 

 Common Pine being called the one bianco and the other 

 roxo. Its timber is also of first-rate quality, being firm, 

 strong, and highly resinous, and in its own country pre- 

 ferred to that of the Pinus sylvestris. Another impor- 

 tant feature is its power of resisting storms of wind, 

 which it does to such an extent that Captain Widdring- 

 ton remarks, when speaking of the constant winds which 



