41 o The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Introduction 



Accordincr to Loudon/ the Corsican variety was introduced into England, as 

 long ago as ^759, under the name Piuus syhestris, e viariHma, which was adopted 

 by Alton = In France, the tree in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris was planted in 1 774 ; 

 but the date of introduction of the first seed is probably earlier. The Austrian pme 

 was introduced^ in 1835 by Lawson of Edinburgh. V^r. pallasiana was first raised 

 by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, Hammersmith, from seeds sent to them about the 

 year 1790 from the Crimea by Professor Pallas.^ Captain Cook^ imported seed in 

 1834 from the Sierra de Segura in the south of Spain ; but the plants raised were 

 probably indistinguishable from the ordinary Corsican variety ; and there is no record 

 of the introduction of the Pyrenean or Cevennes variety, of which we know of no large 

 trees in this country. 



Distribution 



The species has a widespread distribution, extending westwards from Spain 

 into the Cevennes in France, finding its northerly limit in Austria, and descending 

 into Corsica, Italy, Sicily, the Balkan peninsula, Greece, Crete, and Cyprus, it re- 

 appears in the Crimea and in Asia Minor, and reaches its most easterly point in the 

 Caucasus. 



In Spain, a form considered by Willkomm to be identical with the Corsican 

 variety occurs scattered through the plateaux and mountains of the south-eastern 

 and central provinces, at altitudes between 1000 and 3500 feet. The largest forests 

 occur in the Serrania de Cuenca, and in the sierras of Segura and Cazorla, the most 

 southerly point reached being in the last-named mountain in N. lat. 37° 40' and W. 

 long. 3^ 



Pyrenean Laricio. — The form ^ which occurs in the Pyrenees and the 

 Cevennes is remarkable for its stunted growth and slender leaves. It grows 

 on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees in the province of Aragon, not far from 

 Venasque, between the rivers Esera and Cinca. From this locality, which was 

 visited by Mr. H. L. de Vilmorin in his investigations of the Pyrenean Laricio,* 

 seeds were regularly sent to Paris for many years early in the 19th century, by 

 M. Boileau, pharmacist at Bagneres-de-Luchon. 



M. Calas, who has written an elaborate memoir' on this variety, accompanied 

 by a map of its distribution and numerous illustrations of the forests reproduced from 

 photographs, discovered it in 1890 on the north side of the Pyrenees near Prades. 

 Here it covers a scattered area of about 3600 acres in the hills south of the river 

 Tet and north of Mount Canigou, the district being called Conflent ; and grows on 

 glacial clay at elevations between 1880 and 3300 feet. In most places the original 

 forest has been ruined by sheep-grazing and fires, and usually only small isolated 



1 Op. cil. 2204, 2206, 2208, 2209. The date for the Corsican pine is not improbable, as Loudon (viii. t. 315) 

 gives a figure of a tree at Kew, which was 85 feet high in 1838. 



2 Hort. Kew. iii. 366 (1789). 3 Cf. Durand, in Bull. Soc. Bol. France, xl. p. ccxxviii (1S93). 

 * Ibid. p. Ixxvii. 



5 Le Pin Laricio de Salzmaun, pp. 50, tt. 1-19. Published at Paris by the Minister of Agriculture in 1900. 



