Pinus 1085 



PIN us PAT U LA, Mexican Pine 



Pinus patula, Schlechtendal et Chamisso, in Linncza, vi. 354 (1831), and xii. 488 (1838); Lambert, 

 Genus Pinus, i. 36, t. 19 (1832); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2266 (1838); Masters, in 

 Gard. Chron. xxiii. 108, tt. 20, 22 (1885), and m Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) xxxv. 598 (1904); 

 Kent, Veitch's Man. Conif. 355 (1900); Clinton-Baker, Illust. Conif. i. 41 (1909); Shaw, Pines 

 of Mexico, 29, t. xxii. (1909). 



A tree, attaining 80 ft. in height. Bark towards the base fissured longitudinally 

 into large scaly plates ; higher up thin, papery, reddish brown, and scaling off similarly 

 to that of P. sylvestris. Young branchlets glabrous, glaucous, with slightly raised 

 pulvini, becoming reddish brown in the second year. Buds cylindric-conic, acuminate, 

 \ in. to f in. long ; scales brown, interlaced by their white marginal fimbriae, with 

 apices free and directed upwards or spreading. 



Leaves in threes, persistent two to four years, very filiform and slender, 6 to 9 

 in. long, -^ in. or less in width, flexible, bent, pendulous, serrulate, ending in a 

 cartilaginous point, marked with stomatic lines on the three sides ; resin-canals 

 median ; basal sheath about an inch long. 



Cones lateral, in clusters of two to five, on stout short scaly stalks, deflexed, 

 ovoid-conic, slightly curved, oblique at the base, about 3 to 4 in. long, pale brown, 

 shining ; scales oblong, thin, ^ in. long, \ in. wide ; apophysis rhomboidal, with 

 upper margin rounded, and a slightly elevated linear ridge ; umbo dark grey, 

 depressed, with a minute or obsolete prickle. Seed triangular, grey mottled with 

 black, \ in. long ; wing \ in. to f in. long. 



Cones are borne freely on cultivated trees in Cornwall and the south of Ireland, 

 and apparently contain good seed, though we have not heard of any seedlings being 

 raised. These cones remain closed on the old branches for seven or eight years, as 

 they also do on native trees in Mexico. 



This species is easily recognisable by its bark, peeling off in the upper part of 

 the stem like P. densifiora and P. sylvestris, its very slender filiform long needles, 

 multinodal glaucous reddish branchlets, and buds with scales free at the points. 



This species, according to Shaw, attains 40 to 50 ft. in height, and grows, in 

 company with P. Teocote, at warm temperate altitudes in the central and eastern 

 states of Mexico. Near Jalapa it occurs at 7000 to 8000 ft., mixed with 

 P. Montezumce and various species of oak. Hartweg found it in the mountains 

 around Real del Monte at 9700 ft. Stahl, in Karsten and Schenk, Vegetationsbilder, 

 ii. pi. 13 (1905), figures a wood of this species under the Vigas, about 7000 ft. above 

 sea-level, on the road from Perote to Jalapa. 



This species was discovered by Schiede and Deppe in 1828, and was probably 

 introduced by them, as Lambert, according to Loudon, had a plant 6 ft. high at 

 Boyton in 1837. Hartweg collected seeds in 1838 from which plants were raised 

 in the garden of the Horticultural Society. (A. H.) 



This species succeeds in the mild climate of the south-west of England as in 



