Pinus Laricio 419 



and even then, when starving, after an attempt to consume the young needles of the 

 buds, they abandoned the experiment.^ 



Captain the Hon. R. Coke, a very close observer of trees, sends us the 

 following notes from Holkham : — 



" In distinguishing between P. Laricio and P. austriaca, one must apparently 

 be guided rather by the general appearance and habit of the trees, than by any 

 hard and fast rules. Laricio always looks well-bred in comparison with the 

 coarseness of austriaca. Even when the former develops great limbs, coarse in 

 themselves, the more delicate foliage will distinguish it from its Austrian relative. 

 A good instance of this may be seen at Wolterton, where a fine specimen of each 

 are growing side by side. 



" Though the curved or twisted leaves are usually considered to mark the 

 Corsican, yet this feature has been noticed in trees thoroughly Austrian in every 

 other respect ; moreover, some Corsicans have straight leaves. Sometimes the 

 branches being produced in regular whorls up the stem is considered to be the 

 mark of a Laricio, but all Corsicans do not follow this rule. 



"When planting the sandhills at Holkham at various times between 1855 and 

 1890, Lord Leicester took the precaution of wiring in austriaca against rabbits and 

 omitting to do so in the case of Laricio. This was done because it had been found 

 that the P. Laricio, which were all raised from the seed of the old trees at Holkham 

 introduced from Corsica in the early part of the 19th century, were unharmed by 

 rabbits, which eagerly devoured P. austriaca. At the present time, of the trees 

 growing on the sandhills, namely, P. Laricio, P. austriaca, P. sylvestris, P. 

 ■ntaritima, practically the only one which reproduces freely is the Laricio, as the 

 rabbits, though no longer numerous, seem to be able to distinguish this tree from 

 its congeners, and leave it untouched. On the other hand, some trees bought as 

 Laricio from an English nurseryman, which had every appearance of being 

 genuine, were recently planted to fill up gaps in a belt at Holkham, and in this 

 case the rabbits ignored the nurseryman's label, and made short work of the 

 so-called Laricio." 



Mr. J. D. B. Whyte, agent to Lord Iveagh, confirms the statement that rabbits 

 will eat Austrian, and will not touch Corsican pines when planted together ; but 

 though the gamekeeper says that he has never anywhere seen a Corsican damaged 



by rabbits, Mr. Whyte does not think that the question has been fully tested at 

 Elveden. This tree and the Austrian pine are sometimes planted in the Eastern 



counties as belts and hedges, but do not form so dense a shelter, or bear clipping 



so well as the Scots pine. 



The Corsican pine is apparently less liable than some other pines to the 



ravages of insects and fungi. A specimen, however, sent in July 1905 to Kew by 



Mr. Wellwood Maxwell of Kirkennan, near Dalbeattie, showed a branch attacked by 



Peziza Willkommii, and Sir Herbert Maxwell showed me a similar case on a tree 



at Monreith. 



On the sandhills of the Norfolk coast, near Holkham, are a number of Austrian 



' Hutchison, in Tra)is. Scot. Arb. Soc. vii. 55 (1S75). 



