176 PINUS PINEA AT DUNGLASS 



two leaves in a sheath, the other two sections having three 

 and five respectively. When occasion arises to identify a 

 Pine, the first thing to find out is, how many leaves it has 

 in a sheath — though here a little caution is necessary, as 

 sometimes one or more leaves of three and five leaved groups 

 are wanting. Next, the cones of a Stone Pine take three 

 years to come to maturity, after which they are persistent for 

 a long time. Last year from these trees I got a branchlet 

 exhibiting first, second, and third year's cones. The mature 

 cones are very solid and heavy, and broader in proportion 

 to their length than any other sorts. They are composed 

 of hard, stout, oblong-cuneate, ligneous scales, the apophysis, 

 or swollen apex of each scale having a depression or hollow 

 in which is a small umbo or projection. The cones of 

 Pinus pinaster at Dunglass East Lodge gate are longer, 

 more oblique and produced, not singly as in pinea, but in 

 narrower, stellate clusters round the base of the shoots of 

 the current year — hence the name Pinaster, signifying Pine- 

 aster or star. Moreover the terminal foliage of Pinaster is 

 "interrupted," showing more or less a bare bit of branch 

 between each year's leaf clusters, but in pinea the foliage is 

 " continuous." 



The seeds of the Stone Pine are large, enclosed in a hard 

 bony shell — hence the name. They are edible, and much 

 used for food by the peasantry throughout the region 

 where the tree abounds. The specific name pinea was 

 doubtless selected by Linneus to denote the high estimation 

 in which the tree is held — Pinus pinea signifying pine- 

 of-pines. 



It remains, in conclusion, to notice a peculiarity in this 

 tree, not observed in any other. For several years after 

 the seedling stage is passed, and branches with a dull foliage 

 produced, there appear among them slender elongated branches 

 with protomorphic leaves only ; that is, leaves of the early 

 formed or seedling type, which are solitary, not in pairs, 

 only half as long as the adult leaves, and of a diflferent 

 shape. As the young tree advances in age, both sorts of 

 leaves are often intermixed, but eventually the protomorphic 

 ones disappear entirely. 



