452 



COXIFEB-E. 



or three inches in length : but after this age, and when 

 it has obtained possession of the ground, it is much more 

 rapid, its annual shoots, at least in the Swiss variety, or 

 Piniis c. Helvetica, in tolerable soil of a dry quality, 

 averaging- about fourteen inches, and at Twizell, plants 

 put out from the pot when about six inches high, are, 

 after ten years 1 growth, nearly thirteen feet high. In 

 some parts of England, as at Drepmore, it has attained 

 a height of about fifty feet in as many years, and some 

 of those at Walcot Hall, in Shropshire, planted towards 

 the close of the last century, are about fifty feet high. 



In its growth it is very erect and pyramidal, the branches, 

 which are slender, growing in regular whorls from the base 

 to the summit, and retained during life, 

 where the trees have room and air. 

 The leaves are from three and half to 

 four inches long, with three longitu- 

 dinal ribs, two of which are opaque 

 and white, the other green and shining, 

 thus producing a glaucous green foli- 

 age ; they are in thick masses towards 



the ends of the branches, and in win- 

 ter incline towards, or embrace the 



shoots, those nearest the buds being 



usually twisted around the tip, as if 



to defend those important parts from 



frost or the lodgment of snow, which, 



in consequence of this arrangement 



and the comparative slenderness of the 



branches, can rarely take place to any 



hurtful extent, a beautiful provision for 



the preservation of a tree that naturally grows in such high 



Alpine regions. 



