168 



SELECT PLANTS READILY ELIGIBLE 



more than 200 feet and sometimes 30 feet in circumference of 

 stem. The wood is of a light-yellow colour, very close- 

 grained and resinous, strongly and agreeably scented, light, 

 extremely durable, well resisting the vicissitudes of a variable 

 clime, and furnishes one of the best building-timbers known. 

 Pillars of Kashmir mosques of this wood are found sound 

 after 400 years, and bridges of still greater antiquity are in 

 existence. White ants hardly ever attack the heartwood. 

 Boats built of this wood last forty years. It is also exten- 

 sively used for canal-edges and for railways. The tree should 

 not be felled too young. It also yields a good deal of resin 

 and turpentine. A humid clime very much accelerates the 

 growth of this Pine, which in our forest-ranges would come 

 best and quickest to its development. 



Pinus Cembra, Liime. 



On the European Alps, also in Siberia and Tartary. The 

 tree attains a height of 120 feet, the stem upwards of four 

 feet in diameter; the wood is of a yellow colour, very soft 

 and resinous, of an extremely fine texture and is extensively 

 used for carving and cabinet work. The seeds are edible, 

 and when pressed yield a great quantity of oil. A good tur- 

 pentine is also obtained from this Pine. 



Pinus cembroideSj Zuccarini. {P. Laveana, Schiede and 

 Deppe.) 



Mexican Swamp-Pine. A small tree, thirty feet high, grow- 

 ing at an elevation of 8000 to 10,000 feet. The timber is not 

 of much use, but the seeds are edible and have a very agree- 

 able taste. 



Pinus Cilicica, Antoine and Kotschy. 



Cilician Silver-Fir. Asia Minor. 4000 to 6500 feet above 

 sea-level. A handsome tree of pyramidal growth, 160 feet 

 high. The wood is very soft, and used extensively for the 

 roofs of houses, as it does not warj). 



Pinus contorta, Douglass. {P. Bolandri, Parlatore.) 



On high damp ranges in California, attaining fifty feet in 

 height, also abundant on the mountains of Colorado, and very 

 eligible for clothing rocky hill-sides (Meehan). In California 

 it forms dense thickets along the coast, and is in this respect 

 as valuable as P. Laricio, P. Pinaster, and P. Haleppensis in 

 Europe, as a shelter-tree in stormy localities. 



Pinus Coulteri, D. Don. 



California, on the eastern slope of the coast range, at an ele- 

 vation of 3000 to 4000 feet. A Pine of quick growth, attain- 

 ing a height of about 100 feet, with a trunk up to four feet 

 in diameter; it has the largest cones of all Pines. 



