ACCLIMATATION, 29 
of the sea, where a variety of foliage and habit became per- 
ceptible ; when these had yielded cones, and another genera- 
tion of plants had been reared near the sea level, I have 
found many of them so far removed from the ordinary type, 
that some individual plants could scarcely be recognised as be- 
longing to the species. This tree is found to accommodate 
itself to circumstances, producing long or short yearly growths 
in proportion to the ripening influence of the climate which it 
inhabits. A few generations of the tree existing in a high 
temperature would no doubt render its progeny nearly as 
tender as our greenhouse plants. It is many years since I have 
experienced the worthlessness of the plants of Pinus sylvestris, 
or Scotch fir grown from imported seeds, on account of their 
being too tender to withstand the severity of winter in the 
north of Scotland, even in a nursery with some shelter. 
Nevertheless the quantity of native Scotch fir seed sown in 
Britain of late years, while a scarcity of seed in this country 
prevailed, has likely been less than a tenth part of that im- 
ported from the Continent, and sown throughout the country. 
Hamburg is the principal depdt for Continental seed of this 
tree, and the chief forests are Hagenow and Hagueneau. 
These forests of similar name are far apart, and although the 
difference in their altitude must be very considerable, the 
seeds of both produce plants too tender for Scottish moorland. 
Even those English nurserymen, whose grounds are considerably 
elevated, find that the Pinus sylvestris from Continental seed 
does not produce plants sufficiently hardy to endure the severity 
of an ordinary winter. Compared with plants produced from 
Scotch seed, even from a good climate, the difference is great. 
It is perceptible in the one-year-old seedlings, but much more 
so after the second year’s growth, when the plants from foreign 
seed become quite brown, with a faded or scorched appearance 
from the effects of the winter, and so damaged by the month 
of March that they are often unsaleable ; while the plants pro- 
duced from the seeds grown in the native Highlands of Scot- 
land, under the same treatment, and standing alongside, have 
a fresh green appearance ; and such is the contrast, that if 
