1 132 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



it ^ occurs between 6000 and 8700 ft., the latter being the highest elevation known 



for the species. 



The dwarf mountain pine,^ known as the Legfohre, is one of the most char- 

 acteristic shrubs of the Alps and Carpathians, in some places covering large areas 

 with a dense, almost impenetrable thicket, composed of decumbent stems, whose 

 branches are so interlaced that though one may pass through it with difficulty in a 

 lateral direction, and slide downwards over it on a steep hill-side, yet to ascend it is 

 practically impossible. These thickets are well described by Kerner,^ who says that 

 the stems, even when of great thickness, assume a horizontal position, with their 

 growing ends always directed on mountain slopes towards the valley. The branches 

 are remarkably elastic, and in winter are pressed downwards upon the soil by the 

 heavy snow-fall ; and in summer rise up again, often plastered with earth and small 

 stones, and take a curved ascending position. 



P. montana is remarkable for its different behaviour in regard to the chemical 

 elements in the soil in different parts of its area. In the French Alps the extensive 

 woods of this species cease to grow when the Jurassic chalk comes to the surface. 

 Near the Aiguilles the tree is absent from slate formations, but immediately appears 

 wherever the soil is composed of lime or chalk. At Grachen in Nicolai valley it 

 grows on slate, and at Davos on serpentine. In the Engadine it occurs mainly on 

 dolomite, but is not entirely absent from the gneiss formation. In the Carpathians 

 it is indifferent to the nature of the soil. Christ says that in the Swiss Alps generally 

 it is decidedly a lover of lime, often growing on rubbly limestone rocks, and alternat- 

 ing markedly with Alnus viridis, which clothes the declivities of the primitive non- 

 calcareous rocks.* 



In the Pyrenees the tree is found to be especially valuable for windy plateaux. 

 It thrives in soils too poor for any other trees to grow, and succeeds better' on peat 

 than P. sylvestris. It is extremely hardy, easy to raise from seed, and presents no 

 difficulty in transplanting. It is used now throughout the French Alps for planting 

 at high altitudes and in all difficult situations. It is comparatively free from the 

 attacks of fungi and insects. (A. H.) 



Cultivation 



This species was first cultivated in England in 1779, at Orford Hall, near 

 Warrington, Lancashire, where the shrub of van pumilio originally introduced was 

 still living, though in a shattered condition, in Loudon's time. 



1 Described as P. majellmsis, Schouw, in Ann. Sc. Nat. iii. 233 (1845). Referred to P. Laricio by Parlatore ; but as 

 Masters points out, xa Joum. Linn. Soc. (Bet.) xxxv. 613 (1904), the resin-canals are marginal, and not median as in 

 P. Lancio. 



^ At Innsbruck, according to Beissner, in Mitt. d. dendr. Ges., 1905, p. 69, the tall, intermediate, and dwarf pines are 

 distmguished by diffbrent names, Spirke, Latsche, and Zunder or Knieholz ; but these names are not current everywhere with 

 the same signification. 



3 Nat. Hist. Plants, Eng. trans., i. 548, fig. 135 (1898). 



* Cf. Schimper, Plant Geography, 100, 104 (1903). 



Mn the high peat-moors of the Hertogenwald, in Belgium, at 2000 ft. altitude, a few plants of the intermediate variety 

 were doing better on deep peat than any other tree when I saw these plantations in 1909. 



