PINUS SYLVESTRIS. 157 



Many varieties of the Scotch Pine have been met with, some in 

 a wild state, others in. cultivation, all showing some greater or less 

 departure from the usual type. From among the garden varieties 

 we select the following as being the most ornamental : — 



Pinus sylvestris argentea, which has the outer halves of the 

 leaves of all the young shoots creamy white, and P. sylvestris 

 aurea, which has its foliage golden - yellow. In both cases the 

 variegated portions revert to the normal colour in the second season. 



Among the wild varieties, that called Finns hon'onhtlis is the most 

 valued as a timber tree. It is distinguished by its more rapid and 

 more robust growth, by the horizontal direction of its branches, by its 

 broader and more glaucous leaves, and by its producing cones less 

 freely than the common forms. This variety is believed to have been 

 the prevalent form in the ancient Pine forests of Scotland. 



" Although native, and with evidence that the greater part of Scotland, 

 north of the Grampians, was covered with the wUd Pine at no very 

 remote period, forests of indigenous Pirs are at the present time few 

 and far between. The chief remaining ones are to be found about 

 the heads of the valleys of the Dee in Aberdeenshire, and of the 

 Spey in Invernesshire ; whilst another, equally beautiful, but perhaps 

 not so well known, lies on the shores of Loch Eannoch, one of the 

 tributary lochs of the Tay in Perthshire. The latter, from its sombre 

 appearance is called by the natives the Black "Wood. It lies on the 

 south side of Loch Eannoch, and extends along the shores of the loch 

 for about 2 J miles with an average breadth of about 1 mile; this 

 is about the extent of the dense part of the wood, but including 

 the outlying parts, the length is nearly 7 miles and the greatest 

 breadth 5 miles. In altitude above the sea level the wood lies 

 between 700 and 1,500 feet."* 



There is another remarkable natural forest of Scotch Pine at 

 Ballochbuie, on the Braes of Mar, which has now become the property 

 of Her Majesty the Queen, and thus "a guarantee is afforded that it 

 will be permanently preserved as a worthy remnant of those magni- 

 ficent Pine forests with which the Highland glens and mountains were 

 once so widely clothed" t 



The Scotch Pine, from its hardy constitution and rapid growth, is 

 a useful tree for forming screens, and as a nurse for more tender 

 trees. As a tree for planting in poor dry soils and in exposed situations, 

 it is equalled only by the Larch; when planted as a screen for shelter, 

 it is best mixed with the common Spruce and the hardier rapid- 



* Dr. F. Buchanan "White, in Gardeners' Chronicle, 1876, part ii., p. 822. 

 f "William Gprrie, Esq., Address to the Bot. Soe. of Edinburgh, 1880, 



