CHAP. CXIII. CONi'fER/E. ff NUS. 2283 



throughout the island. Miller says that the seeds were first brought to 

 London for sale from Mersham Hatch, Sir Wyndham Knatchbull's seat, 

 near Ashford, in Kent, in 172G. There were also cones, he says, produced 

 at Longleat ; " but it has been chiefly from the seeds of Sir Wyndham Knatch- 

 bull that the much greater number of these trees now in England have been 

 raised; for, although there has annually been some of the seed brought from 

 America, yet those have been few in comparison to the produce of the trees 

 in Kent ; and many of the trees which have been raised from the seeds of 

 those trees now produce plenty of good seed, particularly those in the garden 

 of His Grace the Duke of Argyll, at Whitton, which annually produce large 

 quantities of cones, which His Grace most generously distributes to all the 

 curious." (Diet., ed. 7., 1759.) Many of the trees in these places are still in 

 existence, and are from 70 ft. to 80 ft. high. There are also some remarkably- 

 fine specimens at Strathfieldsaye : some of them, according to Mitchell, had, in 

 1827, trunks 100 ft. high, and 10 ft. in circumference. The largest tree at 

 Whitton was, in 1835, 81 ft. 6 in. high, with a trunk 11 ft. 3 in. in circumfe- 

 rence at 2 ft. from the ground. This tree stands singly, and divides into 

 a great many large woody limbs, so as to form a very irregular head. 

 In Scotland, the Weymouth pine is considered rather tender; and, as it 

 requires a better soil than most other species, it is not much planted for its 

 timber. Sang observes that it is a plant of too delicate a habit ever to 

 become a large or valuable tree in Scotland, in exposed situations ; but that, 

 where it is sheltered and properly treated, it forms a fine-looking single tree. 

 In Ireland, according to Hayes, it was not introduced till about 1770; but 

 there are trees of it in various places above 50 ft. high. The Weymouth pine 

 is not very common in France ; but there are trees at the Trianon, which, in 

 1834, were between 40 ft. and 50 ft. high, after being about the same number 

 of years planted. 



Properties and Uses. The wood of this species is more employed in 

 America than that of any other pine. Throughout the northern states, at 

 the time the younger Michaux published his North American Sylva (1819), 

 seven tenths of the houses, except in the larger capitals, were of wood ; and 

 about three quarters of these were built almost entirely of white pine ; and, 

 even in the cities, the beams and principal woodwork of the houses were of 

 this wood. " The ornamental work of the outer doors, the cornices and friezes 

 of apartments, and the mouldings of fireplaces, all of which, in America, are 

 elegantly wrought, are of this wood. It receives gilding well, and is, there- 

 fore, selected for looking-glass and picture frames. Sculptors employ it 

 exclusively for the images that adorn the bows of vessels, for which they 

 prefer the kind called the pumpkin pine. At Boston, and in other towns 

 of the northern states, the inside of mahogany furniture and of trunks, the 

 bottoms of Windsor chairs of an inferior quality, water pails, a great part 

 of the boxes used for packing goods, the shelves of shops, and an endless 

 variety of other objects, are made of white pine. In the district of Maine, it 

 is employed for barrels to contain salted fish, especially the kind called the 

 sapling pine, which is of a stronger consistence. For the magnificent wooden 

 bridges over the Schuylkill at Philadelphia, and the Delaware at Trenton ; and 

 for those which unite Cambridge and Charleston with Boston, of which the 

 first is 1500 ft., and the second 3000 ft., in length; the white pine has been 

 chosen for its durability. It serves exclusively for the masts of the numerous 

 vessels constructed in the northern and middle states ; and for this purpose it 

 would be difficult to replace it in North America. The principal superiority 

 of white pine masts over those brought from Riga is their lightness; but they 

 have less strength, and are said to decay more rapidly between decks, and at 

 the point of intersection of the yards. This renders the long-leaved pine 

 (P. australis) superior to the white pine, in the opinion of the greater part of 

 the American shipbuilders ; but some of them assert that the white pine would 

 be equally durable, if the top were carefully protected from the weather. 

 With this view, an experiment has been suggested, of a hole, several feet deep, 



