CONIFERiE. 



99 



SCIADOPITYS Verticillata: Whorl-Leaved Pine. 



If puffing were a good guarantee, and a legal tender for the qualifica- 

 tions of a new Pine, we should have had no reason to doubt that this 

 was to be a first-class timber, and a ne plus ultra ornamental tree. It 

 is, however, only a few years since it was introduced to us from China 

 and Japan ; and all that has been said about it for home utility or 

 decoration is merely matter of conjecture. We have it, however, upon 

 its trial ; and as opinions are free contributions, I give mine, which 

 is : — that it is not so constitutionally hardy, nor so accommodating in 

 its choice of soil or situation as ever to be of any economic value as a 

 timber tree in this country ; and that to be of utility as an ornamental 

 Pine, we must give it the most sweet and healthy, loamy, sandy, 

 gravelly, or porous soils, and an open free substratum ; a warm locality, 

 and a well sheltered situation, so as to grow and develop itself in 

 Albion's Isles ; for in cold, wet, or sour soils, it wiU languish and 

 perish ; and in burning sands, or very dry places it soon dies : it is 

 fastidious to a degree as to dryness or moisture, exposure or over 

 shelter, and soil or substrata. It is, nevertheless, a most distinct Pine, 

 and ought to be tried by all planters who may have a soil and situation 

 in theu^ pinetums or arboretums congenial to it ; for if it can be 

 induced to grow, it would add much to the interest and variety of any 

 collection of the Firs and Pines, however rich in genera, species, or 

 varieties it might be. Travellers and botanists who have treated of 

 this tree, inform us that it attains heights of from fifteen to one 

 hundred and fifty feet, and that the Chinese and Japanese have several 

 varieties, both in the giant and pigmy forms ; also large and small- 

 leaved kinds ; and some very beautifully variegated-leaved forms ; a 

 few of which are now extant in this country. 



S.II. VIL Pmus: The Pine. 



The derivation of this term has already been given at page 2-5. 



Flowers, male and female, on the same plant, but separate ; the 

 males generally in masses, clusters, or spikes, rarely solitary ; the 

 female catkins solitary, in opposite pairs, in Avhorls, or in gregarious 

 clusters, and generally terminal. 



Leaves, these are of various sizes, ranging from under one inch to 

 over one foot in length, variously disj)osed, but generally in sheaths of 

 twos, threes, and fives, yet exceptionally found in various numbers 

 up to nine, and in some cases I have found more in a sheath ; while at 

 times and in a few species some are found singly, and minus sheaths, 



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