468 



HISTORY OF THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



ation of the north of Scotland is found not infe- 

 rior to any imported from Norway; but that 

 which has been planted and reared in the low 

 districts is not nearly so durable. There are 

 several varieties of this pine. According to Sang, 

 the variety cultivated is least worth the trouble. 

 The p. silvestris, variety montana, he says, is 

 that which yields the red wood; even young 

 trees of this sort are said to become red in their 

 wood and full of resin very soon. The late Mr 

 Don of Forfar exhibited specimens of cones of 

 each variety to the Highland Society of Scot- 

 land. The variety preferred by him is dis- 

 tinguished by the disposition of its branches, 

 which are remarkable for their horizontal direc- 

 tion, and for a tendency to bend downwards close 

 to the trunk. The leaves are broader and shorter 

 than in the common kind, and are distinguished 

 at a distance by their much lighter and beautiful 

 glaucous appearance. The bark of the trunk is 

 smoother tlian in the common kind ; the cones 

 are thicker, and not so much pointed. The plant 

 is also more hardy, grows freely in almost any 

 soil, and quickly arrives at a considerable size. 



Pines generally are found growing in forests, 

 or clustered together. In this position they 

 grow tall and upright, with few lateral branches, 

 except near the top. Growing singly, however, 

 they branch out into a broad spreading tree, and 

 have certainly a more picturesque appearance 

 than wlien in the other position. 



With the exception of cedar and larch, in 

 respect of toughness and durability, Scotch fir 

 produces better timber than any of the pines. 

 It is good, too, almost in proportion to the slow- 

 ness of its growth. When it is cut directly to 

 the centre, or right across the grain, as for breasts 

 of violins, and the sounding-boards of other 

 musical instruments, it is very beautiful, the 

 little stripes formed by the annual layers being 

 small and delicate, and in perfectly straight lines. 

 This pine very often, though not in trees com- 

 pletely matured, contains sap-wood next the 

 bark; and toward the pith it is a little spongy. 

 The best part is that nearest the root; and the 

 roots themselves are excellent for any purpose 

 that their size and shape will answer. It has 

 been mentioned, that the best pine timber is 

 that grown in cold situations; it is also best on 

 light soils, and when planted by nature. On 

 strong clay it will not thrive, and the timber is 

 worth little; and on rich loams, though it grows 

 rapidly, the timber is of inferior quality, and 

 contains a great deal of sap-wood. At what 

 time the sap-wood changes to durable wood has 

 not been determined by very accurate observa- 

 tion; although most writers on vegetable physi- 

 ology conceive that the ligneous matter is 

 deposited in the second year. This, however, 

 depends on circumstance; sometimes the albur- 

 num remains soft for four or five years. 



Pines, and especially the Scotch pine, occur in 

 much more extensive forests, and with a far 

 less admixture of other trees, than any other 

 genus whatever. Immense districts in North 

 America are covered with them; and so are the 

 mountains of Sweden and Norway, and the 

 sandy tracts near the Baltic. In Poland also, 

 upon each side of the river Memel, they grow 

 in great abundance, and Memel fir is imported 

 into this country in large quantities. 



Though the pine is not the timber that we 

 last meet with on the confines of the snow, as 

 we ascend high mountains, or at the verge of 

 vegetation as we approach the pole, yet, after a 

 certain elevation, and north of the latitude of 

 about 55°, it is by far the most abundant timber, 

 in Europe, in America, and in Asia. From the 

 peculiar nature of the surface in Siberia, — the 

 country which occupies the north of Asia, — from 

 the intense cold, and lowuess of the portion next 

 to the sea, the forests in that part of the world 

 are not very extensive, till we arrive at some 

 distance from the Arctic ocean. In America, 

 too, there are extensive naked tracts between 

 the sea, and the unexplored country to the 

 northward. But, from the summit of the ridge 

 that extends from the dreary shores of Labrador 

 westward, across the country, till it subsides in 

 the central marshes about lake Winnipec, and 

 on the south side of the vast estuary of the St 

 Lawrence, as far as the boundary of the United 

 States, the land, before it began to be cleared by 

 European settlers, was covered by one immense 

 forest of pine; and much of the clearing has 

 been accomplished by burning, or otherwise 

 destroying the trees. On the south side of the 

 St Lawrence, the forest reached down to the 

 water along the whole shore, and upon the islands; 

 and advantage has been taken of this to send a 

 great quantity of the most accessible of the 

 timber to the European market, and to distil 

 into tar a good deal of that which was not so 

 accessible. 



The pine forests of the north of Europe are, 

 however, the most valuable, especially on account 

 of the quality of their timber. Once they 

 abounded over the greater part both of the con- 

 tinent and the islands ; but in the latter situations 

 they have been exhausted somewhat wantonly. 

 Not much more tlran a century, or a century 

 and a half ago, there was an extensive pine 

 forest in the north of Ireland, in that elevated 

 part of the country which extends through the 

 counties of Donegal and Tyrone, and separates 

 the rivers that flow to the sea on the north, from 

 those that flow south and east to Loughs Earn 

 and Neagh. Hardly a vestige of that forest 

 now remains, nor is there any very clear account 

 of what became of it. 



In the lowlands and rich soils of Scotland, 

 there perhaps never was an extensive pine forest; 



