160 THE PINE TREE. 
of as much importance as a species, and sometimes indeed 
more so; for example, in P. sylvestris, the Highland variety 
is known and acknowledged to produce timber of a superior 
quality to: the common kind.” Numerous instances of the 
propagation of this tree from different sources tend, in every 
way, to establish the fact, that this tree, by cultivation for 
several generations, is very apt to become degenerate ; and as 
it not only yields cones most abundantly at a low altitude, in 
a district uncongenial to its best form of development, but 
also produces them at a much earlier age than in the High- 
lands, degeneracy is thereby accelerated throughout the 
country. 
The natural law of deterioration appears to be somewhat 
general: the finest variety of wheat obtained from the genial 
climate of the south, when sown in some of the more un- 
favourable parts of North Britain, generally produces a good 
first crop, but the experience of the agriculturist tells him 
that the variety changes, and that it is more profitable to 
renew the stock than to continue to reproduce from the seed 
of his own growth. 
The effects of soil and climate were pretty generally under- 
stood throughout the north by the rural inhabitants of the 
last generation, in the cultivation of flax. It being an annual 
crop, a change in the plant soon became manifest, and not 
more than the first crop of seed produced in some districts 
could be sown without the fibre becoming of a coarse and 
degenerate quality. This furnishes an illustration of a law 
in nature to which many of our native plants are subject. 
The Scotch pine, however, being a tree of great duration, and 
by no means in general cultivation, its character remained 
more obscure, and being of limited interest, its properties 
were more slowly recognised. 
More than thirty years ago, the Highland Society of Scot- 
land, aware of the degeneracy of the plantations throughout 
Scotland, on account of having been propagated from inferior 
stock, and with the view of improving the timber of the 
country, offered premiums, both for collecting the greatest 
