chap, cxiii. coni'fer^. pi v nus. 2161 



plants of 4 or 5 years' growth, are not glaucous, the seminal leaves, and 

 the leaves of young plants of 2 or 3 years' growth, are entirely so. The 

 seeds of the Scotch pine come up in about 3 or 4 weeks after they are sown : 

 the growth is not above 3 in. or 4 in. the first year; the second, if on a 

 good soil, they will grow from 4 in. to 6 in. ; and the third year the plants 

 begin to branch, and attain the height of from 14 in. to 2 ft., according to soil 

 and situation. In the fourth and fifth years, if not transplanted, or if they have 

 been transplanted carefully in the second year, they begin to push strongly, 

 making a leading shoot from 1 ft. to 3 ft. in length, according to soil and 

 situation ; and they continue growing vigorously for half a century, or even a 

 century, according to circumstances. In 10 years, in the climate of London, 

 plants will attain the height of 20 ft. or 25 ft. ; and in 20 years, from 40 ft. to 

 50 ft. Evelyn mentions a Scotch pine which grew 60 ft. in height in little 

 more than 20 years. Like almost all the other species of the ^(bietinae, the 

 Scotch pine is a social tree, and is always found in masses of considerable 

 extent. The tree is considered full grown, and fit to be cut down for timber, 

 at 50 or 60 years' growth ; but where it grows slowly, as in its native 

 habitats in the north of Scotland and other cold climates, it will continue in- 

 creasing for three or four centuries. Mr. Farquharson of Marlee, in the 

 Highlands of Scotland, Mr. Strutt informs us, cut over close to the root a 

 tree of 2\ ft. in diameter, which is nearly the size which a Scotch pine, reared 

 in a nursery, and then planted out, would attain in about 50 years ; and he 

 counted exactly 214 circles, which made this self-sown tree about four times 

 the age of the cultivated one. In Sweden, Dr. Walker informs us, 360 circles 

 have been numbered in a tree that was composed entirely of sound wood. 

 The largest Scotch pine that was ever cut down in Scotland is supposed to 

 be one which stood in the Forest of Glenmore, which was called the Lady of 

 the Glen, and of which there is a plank in the entrance hall of Gordon 

 Castle, 6 ft. 2 in. long, and 5 ft. 5 in. broad. The annual layers of wood, as 

 reckoned by Mr. Grigor (see Highland Soc. Trans., xii. p. 128.), are about 

 235. The plank bears the following inscription on a brass plate : — 

 " In the year 1783, 

 William Osbourne, Esquire, 

 Merchant of Hull, purchased of the Duke of Gordon the Forest of Glenmore, 

 the whole of which he cut down in the space of twenty-two years, and built, 

 during that time, at the mouth of the river Spey, where never vessel was 

 built before, forty- seven sail of ships of upwards of 19,000 tons burthen. The 

 largest of them of 1050 tons, and three others, little inferior in size, are now 

 in the service of His Majesty and the Honourable East India Company. 

 This undertaking was completed at the expense (of labour only) of above 

 70,000/. To His Grace the Duke of Gordon this plank is offered, as a speci- 

 men of the growth of one of the trees in the above forest, by His Grace's 

 most obedient Servant, 



Hull, September 26, 1836. William Osbourne." 



The Scotch pine which is supposed now to contain the most timber of any 

 tree of the species about Gordon Castle is one of which the skeleton portrait, 

 fig. 2049., was kindly sent to us by the Duke of Richmond. It is about 

 100 ft. high, and contains 260 cubic feet of timber, exclusive of the branches. 

 Some of the finest single specimens of Scotch pine in the neighbourhood of 

 London are at Whitton and Pain's Hill, where some of them are between 

 80 ft. and 90 ft. high, and, standing singly, are very picturesque in their general 

 forms. A portrait of one of the handsomest of those at Pain's Hill, by 

 by H. Le Jeune, Esq., is given in our last Volume. There are also a few very 

 fine specimens at Muswell Hill, a portrait of one of the most picturesque of 

 which, by W. A. Nesfield, Esq., is given in our last Volume. There are 

 others at Studley, in Yorkshire, of one of which, 82 ft. high, fig. 2050., to a 

 scale of 24 ft. to 1 in., is a portrait by H. W. Jukes, Esq. ; and there is a very 



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