Pinus 



1097 



Cones subterminal, solitary or clustered, deflexed or pendent, on short stout 

 scaly stalks, cylindric-conic, with a flattened apex, very variable in length, averaging 

 5 in. long ; shining yellowish brown, and closely resembling those of P. Pinaster in 

 appearance ; scales thick, about if in. long, and | inch wide ; apophysis rhomboid, 

 slightly elevated, with a transverse sharp ridge, and a dark brown prominent non- 

 prickly umbo. Seed \ in. long, pointed at both ends, with a pale brown wing \\ in. long. 



The seedlings have six to eight cotyledons, and grow rapidly, attaining 10 in, 

 in their first year. In Gard. Chron. xv. 333 (1881), it is stated that Hochstetter 

 had succeeded in fixing the juvenile form of this species and of P. Pinea by cuttings, 

 producing beautiful bushes with solitary needles. 



This species is endemic in the Canary Islands. It does not occur on some 

 of the dry eastern islands, as Lanzarote and Fuerteventura ; and only a single tree 

 exists on Gomera, and a small wood on Ferro. According to Christ, it is called 

 tea by the Spaniards, and was formerly widely spread, and descended lower on the 

 mountains, than at present. Large woods still exist in Teneriffe, Palma, and Grand 

 Canary, beginning at 3700 ft. altitude and ascending to where the snow lies in 

 winter, solitary trees being met with on Teneriffe as high as 6600 ft. It grows on 

 dry slopes, exposed to the sun and wind, and appears to prefer basalt, where the soil 

 contains no lime. Its upper elevation is limited not so much by the cold, as by the 

 poverty of the soil, which at high elevations consists of pumice stone, on which no 

 tree growth can exist. Christ saw many beautiful woods, with an undergrowth of 

 Cistus, and numerous seedlings growing under the shade of the parent trees. Many 

 of the trunks^ show the same character as P. rigida, as they produce epicormic 

 branches covered with solitary primary leaves. 



The trees are conical in shape, often branched to the ground, and somewhat 

 weeping in habit, with pendulous leaves. Most of the famous trees of this species, 

 one of which was mentioned by Loudon as 30 ft. in girth near the ground, were 

 destroyed even in Webb's time ; and the largest tree seen by Christ, the Pino del 

 Paso, in Teneriffe, is only 10 ft. in girth ; but he mentions old trees on Palma 

 twice as thick. 



The timber is reported to be remarkably heavy and durable. In the museum 

 at Kew, there is preserved part of the beam of a wine-press, made of the heart- wood, 

 which is quite sound, although the press was over 200 years old and had stood all 

 the time in the open air. 



This species is rare in cultivation in England, except as a green-house plant. 

 Loudon states that specimens in the open were killed at Dublin. There is, however, 

 a small tree, at Heligan, Cornwall, which in 1906 was fifteen years old and about 25 

 ft. high ; and another at Carclew about 6 ft. high, which was slightly damaged by 



frost in 1908- 1909. 



It succeeds well on the Riviera, even on calcareous soil ; and there are fine 

 specimens at La Mortola and Grimaldi.^ Elwes measured one at the Villa Thuret, 

 Antibes, 92 ft. by 5I ft., which bore fertile cones in January 19 10. (A. H.) 



1 Cooley, in Bot. Gazette, xxxviii. 441, fig- I (X904), describes a tree in the Botanic Garden at NapUs the stem of which 

 is clothed to the ground with shoots like those of i'. risida. ' ' Cf. Gard. Chron. rv. 39 (1888). ^ 



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