142 FAMILIAR TREES 
head becomes more flat, spreading itself like a canopy, which is a 
form equally becoming ; and thus we see what beauty may result from 
a tree with a round head, and without lateral branches, which re- 
quires, indeed, a good example to prove. When we look on an Ash 
or an Elm from which the lateral branches have been stripped, as 
is the practice in some countries, we are apt to think that no tree 
with a head placed on a long stem can be beautiful; yet in Nature’s 
hands, which can mould so many forms of beauty, it may easily be 
effected.” 
Valued for its shade, it is sometimes called 
the Umbrella Pine, the “Pin Parasol” of Southern 
France, though this name now belongs rather to 
the Japanese Sciadop'itys verticillata S. & Z. 
The Stone Pine is more abundant on the Riviera 
di Levante than on the Riviera di Ponente; but, 
says the author of “Riviera Nature Notes,” 
“Tf the Riviera di Ponente has few Stone Pines, we make up for 
the deficiency by possessing the finest specimen of the tree. The 
famous Pin de Bertaud, which grows on the high-road between 
Cogolin and St. Tropez, is the largest in Europe—at least, so the 
guide books say. 
“What a strange region is this, where the tropic and the Arctic 
doras meet; where the Pine, son of the snowy north, stands side by - 
side wide with the Palm, daughter of the burning south! Here is 
realised the dream of Heine’s Fir Tree: 
“Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam 
Im Norden auf Kahler Hoh; 
Ihn schla/efert, mit weisser Decke 
Umbiillen ihn Eis und Schnee. 
“«Er trua/emt von einer Palme 
Die fern in Morgenland 
Einsam und schweigend trauert 
Auf brennender Felsenwand.’” 
Writers, slavishly copying one another, say that 
the Stone Pine was cultivated in England previous 
