430 CONIFERS. 



taining an upright position and rooting itself more firmly 

 in the ground. Its timber, also, though inferior in elas- 

 ticity to that of the Common Pine, is of a quality much 

 superior to that of the Pinaster, and by the French has 

 been used extensively in ship-building, as well as for the 

 masts of vessels. It is also in request with the cabinet- 

 makers and sculptors in wood, as it works easily and 

 smoothly under the plane and chisel. It is a native of 

 Corsica and various other parts of Europe, and also abounds 

 in the Caucasus and in the south of Russia. It was 

 first introduced into England in 1759, under the name of 

 Pinus maritima, having been confounded with that variety 

 of the Pinaster now known under the title of Pinus pinaster 

 maritima, and it was not until 1822 that it received its 

 present specific name of Pinus laricio. The largest Bri- 

 tish specimen appears to be that growing at Kew, which 

 is nearly ninety feet high, and at White Knights Loudon 

 mentions one, thirty-seven years planted, as being sixty 

 feet high. 



Nearly allied to the Pinus laricio, of which species it 

 is by some considered a variety, is the 

 Pinus pattasiana, Lamb. It differs ; x 



from that tree in having the leaves* 

 stronger, and exhibiting a more massive 

 foliage, of a lighter green tint. The 

 cones are larger, being from four to 

 five inches long, and from one inch and 

 a half to one and three quarters broad, 

 of an ovate oval shape, acuminate, and 

 often slightly recurved at the extremi- 

 ties. The central bud is upwards of an inch long, ovate, 

 with a sharp point, and dotted with closely adpressed, 

 chaffy, linear-like scales. 



* The leaves on the opposite page are reduced to half their natural size. 



