XVIII. 
THE PINE TREE. 
THE genus Pinus is the most important of any belonging to 
the natural order Coniferw, and perhaps the most valuable of 
any genus of ligneous plants. It consists of evergreen trees, 
natives of Europe, Asia, and America. Most of the species 
produce timber of a great size, abounding in resin. Their 
leaves are generally needle-shaped, disposed in groups of two, 
three, or five, enclosed by a scaly sheath around the base of 
the group. Pines generally flower in May and June; the 
male and female flowers are separate on the same tree; the 
cones become ripe in the end of the second year, or eighteen 
months after the time of flowering. In their native countries 
pines generally grow in masses, to the exclusion of other 
trees; and the genus is remarkable for yielding timber of 
large dimensions on-poor soil in elevated situations, and fre- 
quently they are found on the extreme limits of arborescent 
plants. Some of the species are therefore valuable in sub- 
duing the severity of the climate in exposed districts, where 
they are generally planted as the forerunners to broad-leaved 
trees, and such as are not adapted to endure the severity of 
an exposed situation. 
All the species have a tendency to sport by cultivation in 
soil and climate different from that in which they grow wild, 
and by this means alterations in form and foliage are pro- 
duced which tend to obscure the distinctions between the 
ordinarily recognised species. 
P. sylvestris: the Scotch Pine—This is the most valuable 
timber tree of the genus in Britain, or even in Europe. It 
is found in great perfection in native forests in the High- 
