108 NATURAL HISTORY OF BOOTOH FIR. 



more. A large number of the trees which grow in Switzerland and 

 Germany are middling trees, badly formed, often incapable of fur- 

 nishing even a passable plank ; in short, having no resemblance in 

 anything to those of which we have just spoken. This great 

 diversity of the pinus sylvestris, noticed ' in the middle of the last 

 century, has given place to questions and doubts regarding it on which 

 opinions are still much divided. Some have thought that the 

 pine or Scotch fir, as it was then called, did not form a single species 

 as was pretty generally believed, but formed several which had been 

 mistakenly united till then ; two or more have been described and 

 named accordingly; others have explained this diversity in the species 

 by the existence of varieties or races which are reproduced in suc- 

 cessive generations. Others rejecting every distinction of this nature 

 have maintained that the differences, however great they may be, 

 which are to be seen in the pinus sylvestris are entirely owing to the 

 soil, to the climate, and to the influence of exterior circumstances. 

 These contrary opinions have been often reproduced for nearly a 

 century, without deciding the question. It has even become more 

 confused and complicated through the discussions, and it remains still 

 almost entirely yet to be resolved. 



" As a fact, it is now almost generally admitted that the species is 

 one, and that of this there are varieties. To every one is known, at 

 least the names, Kiga pine, Haguenau pine, and Scotch fir, &c, but 

 if one seeks in books for the differences between these, they are not 

 to be found ; there are also vague descriptions, or rather, what is 

 worse, botanical descriptions which, under their precise and scientific 

 form, are inexact and contradicted by the trees themselves, when 

 one tries the application on a sufficient number of specimens which 

 are unlike. Such an uncertainty is evidently troublesome and injurious 

 on an essentially practical subject. It is more so than ever now, when 

 the condition of forests in France naturally entails that the culture of 

 pines should be considerably increased, and that, on the other side, 

 the pinus sylvestris, more appreciated than formerly, begins to be 

 associated with the maritime pine, or even to replace it in the 

 construction of composition of woods of resinous trees. It is then 

 evidently necessary to arrive at some notions more preoise than those 

 which have existed till now in regard to it. 



" The English have advanced far before us in the culture of the 

 pinus sylvestris. It is in England also that the remarkable differences 

 between the individuals of this species have been remarked. The 

 first printed notice is to be found in a treatise on forest trees, 



