Pinus 112,3 



Boissier records it in the littoral region of Anatolia and Syria ; and it reaches its 

 most easterly point as a wild tree on the left bank of the Tschoroch river, near 

 Artun, south of Batoum, where it forms an open wood in mixture with Arbutus 

 Andrachne} 



It does not appear to be wild in northern Africa, and forms no part of the flora 

 of Egypt, though two cones were found in a tomb of the 12th dynasty (2200-2400 

 B.C.), which are now preserved in the museum at Boulac. 



A cone has been found in a turf-bog in Alsace, lying beside the skull of a bison, 

 but this is supposed to have been brought there by early traders. A fossil species, 

 resembling P. Pinea, was discovered by Saporta in a miocene deposit at Ard^che. 



(A. H.) 



Cultivation 



The tree is now widely cultivated in warm countries; and, according to Bunbury,^ 

 there were in his day extensive groves of it on the lower slope of Table Mountain and 

 on the sandy flats to the east of Cape Town,^ where it flourished as well as in Italy. 



It was early introduced into England, being mentioned in Turner's Names of 

 Herbes, published in 1548. It grows very slowly, and is somewhat tender, though 

 trees may be seen in all the southern counties. According to Bunbury,^ the trees at 

 Hardwicke, in Suffolk, were all killed by the severe winter of i860, those at Barton 

 being injured and not doing well afterwards. In the woods at Addington Park all 

 the trees of this species, which were forty to fifty years old, were dead or dying in 

 1890. Trees, however, at Kew and Richmond seem to have been unaffected by the 

 severe frosts of exceptional years, and bear fruit in abundance. 



The seeds * may be liberated by knocking the cone with a mallet, or by placing 

 it in water hot enough to soften the resin which keeps the scales together. The 

 scales will also come asunder if the cones are placed in a warm oven. Seeds should 

 be soaked in water before sowing, and the seedlings should be kept in a cool frame 

 for at least two years. 



Remarkable Trees 



If I had not seen the remarkable plantation of this pine at Matchams, 

 near Ringwood, I should have supposed that it was incapable of developing 

 its normal character in any part of England, but here it seems so much at home 

 that the conditions under which it grows are of interest. Hamilton Leigh, 

 Esq., owner of this place, informs me that the trees were raised from seed sent by 

 Lord Nelson from the Mediterranean about one hundred years ago, to the then owner 

 of the estate. They grow close to the road and railway, at the foot of a great sandhill 

 on the open barren heath, two or three miles south-west of Ringwood, in sand which 

 is apparently never dried up in summer, owing to the percolation from the hill above ; 



1 Radde, Pflanzen-verb. Kaukastisldnd. 126 (1899). 



2 Arboretum Notes, 125 (1889). 



' According to Hutchins, Science in South Africa, 395 (1905), there are some noble specimens still on the old fanns ; 

 but about thirty years ago this species was attacked by a fungus (Peronospora sp.), and the tree is now likely to become 

 extinct in Cape Colony. * Gard. Chron. xxxvii. 240 (1905). 



