118 



PIJSTACE^. 



fifteen inches long, and from four to eight inches broad at swell; 

 weighing from three to five pounds each ; hard, smooth, and polished 

 on their sui^face, and of a pale yellowish-hrown in colour. Seeds, from 

 a quarter to three-quarters of an inch long, flat, dark, and broad 

 •winged. Leaves, generally in threes, from ten to fifteen inches long, 

 stiff, strong, flat, incurved, pointed, glaucous, and greyish-green in 

 colour. Branches, in regular whorls, horizontal, but ascending at their 

 extremities ; and the young shoots are at first of a violet colour. 

 Attaining heights of from seventy to one hundred and twenty feet, 

 with trunks from two to four feet in diameter. It is capricious to a 

 degree in its choice of soil, and requires a good loam, or rich sandy, or 

 gravelly earth, free, sweet, and porous, and an open substratum in a 

 tolerably warm or sheltered situation to develop itself in this country ; 

 where, however, it will never be of any economic value as a timber 

 tree ; though, when under conditions favourable to its growth, it will 

 be found to be a distinct, and interesting ornamental Pine, deserving a 

 place in every collection. 



PiNUS MaGROPHYLLA : The Large-Leaved Pine. 



Introduced from Mexico in 1839. Eemarkable only for its large, 

 ample, and beautiful foliage ; the leaves are from ten to fifteen inches 

 long, generally five in a sheath, very stout, straight when young, some- 

 what reflexed when old, blunt-pointed, and deep green in colour. 

 Cones, five to seven inches long, and from two-and-a-half to three-and-a- 

 half inches broad at swell, elongate, straight, and tapermg to the 

 point, rounded at base, with a stout, short footstalk : the scales being 

 elevated, hooked, four-sided, hard, and glossy. Attaining heights of 

 from fifteen to thirty feet, and when old with a densely branched top. 

 In an arboretum or pinetum where a good loam, or rich and deep 

 sandy soil, an open subsoil, a warm locality, and well sheltered situa- 

 tion can be assigned to it, then, but not otherwise, need it be planted 

 in this country. 



PiNUS MassONIANA: Mason's Pine. 



Introduced from China about the beginning of the present century, 

 and frequently since as a fine new Pine, always more or less metamor- 

 phosed : for it is one of nature's rarm aves that plays at alter ego, and 

 one of those quasi-species about which so much thrasonic brag has of 

 late years been pubHshed ; and being a good target in a safe range for 

 amateur practice, I load, and present its prototype. Pinaster, which is 

 indigenous in Algeria, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the 

 Mediterranean coast, and in short more or less plentiful over Southern 



