I024 'The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



here, and though occasionally cut up in the sawmills, does not form an important 

 item in the timber resources of British Columbia. 



According to Macoun and Anderson ^ the wood is used for the same purposes 

 as eastern white pine. It is useful for window-sashes, doors, powder barrels, and 

 similar work, but being a white and very light wood it is unfit for outside work and 

 decays rapidly in contact with the ground. 



In north-western Montana, this species does not ascend above 4000 ft. and 

 never crosses the continental divide. It is of rather rare occurrence in the Flathead 

 region where scattered trees grow in the mixed forest, which is mainly composed of 

 western larch and Douglas fir. It thrives best on moist soil, but on swampy 

 ground has shallow roots and is often blown down. Seedlings ^ germinate in the 

 open, where the soil is not too dry ; but they bear a certain amount of shade, though 

 they are never seen under the dense cover of Thuya plicata or Tsuga Albertiana. 



Cultivation 



Though discovered by David Douglas in 1831 and introduced by him soon 

 afterwards, the tree did not become common in England until Lobb and others sent 

 seeds in quantity between 185 1 and 1855. It seems to be perfectly hardy as regards 

 cold everywhere, but does not succeed as well in England generally as in Scotland, 

 and even there it seems very subject to the attacks of a rust which was identified 

 by Mr. W. G. Smith as Peridermium pini,^ and which is described by Mr. J. Laurie, 

 gardener at Murthly Castle, as spreading over all the trees there, but not attacking 

 P. Strobus which grows close by. From what I have seen elsewhere this or a similar 

 rust has destroyed other trees in different parts of the country. It seems to succeed 

 best in the wetter parts of Scotland, and to dislike lime, as the seedlings I have 

 raised will not grow at Colesborne. It cannot be recommended on our present 

 knowledge as a forest tree in this country. 



Among the finest I have measured in England are those at Adhurst St. Mary 

 near Petersfield, the seat of Miss Bonham Carter, where in 1908 I measured a tree 

 growing on the lower greensand which was 78 ft. by 5^ ft. At Barton, in 1904, a 

 tree with three leaders was 79 ft. by 8 ft. It was planted in 1848* and bore cones 

 in 1864. At Beauport, two trees, 81 ft. by 7 ft. and 68 ft. by 7 J ft., were healthy 

 and covered with cones in 1905. At Enville Hall, Staffordshire, Henry saw a 

 beautiful glaucous tree which in 1904 was 'j'j ft. by 6 ft. At Kew, a tree on the 

 lawn north-west of the Water Lily house, planted in 1843, measured in 1903, 63 ft. 

 by 5 ft. I in.' At Highnam, Major Gambier Parry in 1906 measured a tree 64 ft. 



■ Brit. Columbia, Bureau Inform., Bull. No. 15, p. 239 (1903). 



2 Cf. Whitford, in Bot. Gaz. xxxix. 201 (1905). Henry in 1906 saw numerous seedlings near Nyack on the Great 

 Northern railway. The tree is of no economic importance in Montana, and is estimated by Ayres to yield about one per cent 

 of the total timber in the Lewis and Clarke Forest Reserve. Elrod gives 10 ft. as the maximum girth. 



3 Card. Chron. xxiii. 244 (1898). Smith says that the rust is Peridermium finiaxA not P. Strobi. The two fiingi are 

 distinct. Cf. Smith, ibid. 202. According to Ulmer, in Natural. Zeitsch. first. Landwirtschaft, 1908, pt. 12, of all the 

 five-leaved pines in the forest garden at Tharandt in Saxony, only P. monticola, of whiph there are several trees eighteen years 

 old, is attacked by Peridermium Strobi. Experiments in that place have shown that the only species of Ribes infected by the 

 spores is R. sanguineum. 



* Bunbury, Arboretum Notes, 133 (1889). 6 JCew Hand-List Conifora, xiv, xxii (1903). 



