EVERGREEN ORNAMENTAL TREES. 247 



— the mountains of Switzerland and the Alps, the shores 

 of the Baltic, vast tracts in Norway, Sweden, Germany, 

 Poland, and Russia,, as well as millions of acres in our 

 own country, abound with immense and interminable 

 forests of Pine. Capable of enduring extreme cold, 

 growing on thin soils^ and flourishing in an atmosphere, 

 the mean temperature of which is not greater than 37° or 

 38° Fahrenheit, they are found as far north as latitude 

 68° in Lapland ; while on mountains they grow at a 

 greater elevation than any other arborescent plant. On 

 Mount Blanc, the Pines grow within 2,800 feet of the line 

 of perpetual snow.* In Mexico, also, Humboldt found 

 them higher than any other tree; and Lieut. Glennie 

 describes them as growing in thick forests on the mountain 

 of Popocatapetl, as high as 12, 693 feet, beyond which 

 altitude vegetation ceases entirely.f 



The Pines are, most of them, trees of considerable 

 magnitude and lofty growth, varying from 40 to 150 or 

 even 200 feet in height in favorable situations, rising with 

 a perpendicular trunk, which is rarely divided into 

 branches bearing much proportionate size to the main 

 stem, as in most deciduous trees. The branches are 

 much more horizontal than those of the latter class 

 (excepting the Larch). The leaves are linear or needle- 

 shaped, and are always found arranged in little parcels 

 of from two to six, the number varying in the different 

 species. The blossoms are produced in spring, and the 

 seeds, borne in cones, are not ripened, in many sorts, until 

 the following autumn. Every part of the stem abounds 

 in a resinous juice, which is extracted, and forms in the 



* Edinburgh Phil. Joum. 



t Proo. Geological Soe Lgnd. Arb. Brit. 



