122 NATURAL HISTORY OF SCOTCH FIR. 



" These questions, it may be seen, touch, closely upon practical 

 applications, and so warrant my pausing to give these details. 



" It so happens that an accidental circumstance adds to the interest 

 awakened by these pines. They are planted contiguous to a small 

 clump of Tpines of Briancpn, or of the High Alps, to which they 

 present a most striking contrast. A glance at these two clumps 

 planted on the same day would suffice to convince the most 

 incredulous that there exist of the pin sylvestre well marked varieties, 

 independent of the differences due to the effects of soil and of 

 climate." 



Intermediate between this class and the third class he places 

 a pin sylvestre from a plantation near Louvain, presumed to be 

 of Russian origin. Of this he writes : " The seeds from which this 

 lot was produced were sent to me by an amateur at Louvain, M. 

 Stuppaert, as the produce of a very beautiful plantation, the produce 

 of seeds brought from Russia. The character of the trees confirms the 

 probability of the account. 



"Of two parcels sent to me at different times, one has produced 

 trees which stand much too far apart, occasioned by numerous blanks, 

 which are veritable Haguenaux, of a very strong trunk, but often 

 deformed by enormous overgrown branches ; the other, sown where 

 they grow, has, on the contrary, generally the trunks very straight 

 and elongated, well proportioned, the crowns also large and strong, 

 but symmetrical, and the bark fairly reddish ; in fine, the characters of 

 those pins du Nord, which the excess of vigour renders very 

 unequal, but which evidently belong fundamentally to the race ; and 

 therefore the tree has found its place in this series." 



Intermediate between the same class, and the fourth class, he 

 classes a Scotch fir, the seed of which was furnished by Mr James 

 Reid, of Aberdeen ; and another, the seed of which was furnished by 

 Mr W. Malcolm, and a pin sylvestre, from the seed of a tree with 

 semi-horizontal branches growing at Verrieres, near Paris. 



Of the first of these he writes : 



" The Scotch fir ought necessarily to make part of the collection 

 of which I am here giving a report, since it is considered the type of 

 the species, at least it is that which has furnished the common 

 name under which for a long time it has been known, a name 

 still much used, especially in England. I have accordingly obtained 

 seeds and plants from Scotland. These have not by any means all 



