184 THE PINE TREE. 
quite hardy, and consists of several varieties. It has for 
many years yielded crops of cones in Britain. Some of the 
best trees are found at Dropmore, Kew, and Whitton. The 
seeds are large and edible, and being produced abundantly in 
Switzerland they form part of the food of the peasantry of 
those districts in which the tree is indigenous. The seeds 
should be sown fully half an inch under the surface of the 
ground ; they do not vegetate till the second spring, and the 
plants are remarkable for their slowness of growth; they 
should be transplanted when two years old into nursery lines. 
This becomes an erect tree with a smooth bark, with leaves 
(five in a sheath) of a fine green silvery appearance. Although 
slow of growth when young, yet in after years it advances 
more rapidly, and is believed to be a tree of great duration. 
It retains its lateral branches down to the surface of the 
ground in a very marked degree, and these are commonly 
very short in proportion to the thickness of the bole. A 
tree of this species planted at Croome in Worcestershire was 
45 feet high at the age of thirty years. Though of formal 
growth it is generally reckoned handsome, and its male 
blossoms, which are of a bright purple, are the most attractive 
and ornamental of all the pines. When young its root is 
large and fibrous in proportion to the size of its top, which 
enables the plant to be removed of a large size, and adapts it 
to endure a rough exposure. 
P. Strobus (L.): The Weymouth Pine.—This tree is a 
native of America, and abounds on the hill-sides from Canada 
to Virginia, attaining its largest size in the State of Vermont, 
where it is sometimes found upwards of 150 feet in height, 
and from three to five feet in diameter. The tree began to 
be cultivated in England in the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, having been planted in large numbers by Lord 
Weymouth on his estates in Wiltshire, and having grown 
vigorously it was called the Weymouth pine. It is easily 
propagated by the same treatment as the Scotch pine. In 
rich soft soil it grows to a large size, provided it is protected 
from the severity of the weather by hardier trees, or 
