8 PINES 
STROBI GROUP 
You may as well forbid the mountain Pines, 
To wag their high tops, and to make a noise, 
When they are fretted with the gusts of Heaven, 
SHAKESPEARE, 
Srrop1 Group oF Pines: P. Excess, PEuKE, 
AYACAHUITE, BUONAPARTEA, LAMBERTIANA, 
MonTIcoLa, STROBUS, PARVIFLORA 
The first group of the Quinze—or five-leaves-in-a- 
bundle Pines—take their group name from the P. 
Strobus, an individual member of the group, that we 
know more familiarly as the Weymouth Pine. 
This P. Strobus owes the origin of its name to a 
Pine encountered by Pliny the Elder of Pompeian and 
eruptive Vesuvius fame. We learn from the original 
authority of his own pages (in his work: entitled 
Naturalis Historia) that Pliny godfathered sur- 
nominally a Pine to which he gave the name Strobus. 
What tree precisely the renowned naturalist and 
historian had in mind when he bestowed the title 
there is neither jot nor tittle of evidence extant to 
give us information. At this distant date we take 
it that anyone who so wishes may be allowed to 
picture for himself, without consulting further any 
modern authority, his own conception of the tree 
that Pliny was thinking about, so long as that idea 
coincides with the idea of the original description. 
We know—or, to put it more correctly, we have 
learnt that the Greek word orpéfos signifies a top, 
so we have to conclude that the tree named recalled 
to the mental vision of this great Roman, Caius 
Plinius Secundus (to give him his name in full), the 
material outline of the fashionable top of his day. 
Many kinds of tops at the suggestion of this simile at 
once flit before our half-forgotten memories of an 
