THE CORSICAN PINE 61 
more able to resist anything than. temptation, and 
dubious opinions were expressed as to the strength 
of the temptation that a young Corsican might offer 
to the gratification of their recurrent appetite. The 
majority prophesied a short shrift and a speedy end 
to the sacrificial victim, and the majority were wrong. 
To-day, when the rabbits have since been almost 
improved off the face of this plot, the tree, as a respect- 
ably grown and ornamental member of the Society 
of Pines, remains, and is a monumental evidence to 
the distasteful qualities of its flavour; and the 
excellency of their discrimination would be endorsed, 
we feel sure, by any species of man or superman who 
would care to try conclusions with the bitter ex- 
perience that a taste of its leaves produces. 
Possibly this trial by taste, as a trial of vintages 
after the gathering of the grapes, might have some 
influence in deciding between a Corsican and Austrian 
Pine. We have referred in the Table to the difference 
as to shape, bark, and leaves, and in an old tree the first 
two of this trio of differences are the most convincing. 
Many complaints have been received as to losses 
incurred, owing to the long tap root, in transplanting 
Corsicans. Professors from schools of forestry, and 
other wiseacres who have made the experiment, bid 
us plant them late in the spring, very late, even to the 
time when summer is upon us. When fuller grown 
this long tap root may have been of great service to 
the stability of the tree at a later date. Speaking 
from a limited experience, upon the point of view of 
quantity, of trees under immediate observation, but 
not from a limited or impersonal experience of the 
force and fury of the gales and winds (I write in 1916), 
the Corsican has withstood the test when Scots Pines, 
Weymouth Pines, Silver Firs, and Spruce Trees, and 
many Hard-woods have strewn the ground with havoc 
and derelicts. 
