490 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



whole timber of the vessel was of this species, except the masts ; and, 

 by the most competent judges, it was esteemed of a more close and com- 

 pact quality than foreign fir. 



Note XVII. Page 858. 



There is reason to think that the Pine the best calculated to withstand 

 the sea-breeze, is the Pinus maritima. The extraordinary success 

 which has attended the cultivation of it on the coasts of France should 

 operate as a powerful recommendation to form plantations of it in this 

 country, as our woods in such situations have usually failed. It seems 

 not only capable of resisting the storm, but of sheltering other trees 

 planted within the influence of the saline vapour ; and it is said to 

 flourish in pure quartzose sand, which is, in general, completely sterile. 

 The botanical description is P. maritima^ foUis geminis tenuissimis ; 

 strobilis ovato-conicis, glaherrimis, solitariis, pedunadatis. — See Lambert, 

 t. 4, 5. It seems to be, as yet, a rare plant in Britain, as the only 

 specimen of it known to Mr Lambert grew at Sion House. 



Next in value, for such exposures, seems to be the Pinaster or Cluster 

 Pine (P. pinaster,) a tree better known in England than the former, 

 where it is said to bear the sea-storm better than any yet tried. The 

 late Lord Galloway had the merit of introducing this tree, for the pur- 

 pose in question, into Scottish plantations. He tried it some years 

 since, pretty extensively, in his woods on the coasts of Galloway and 

 Ayrshire, in which it is planted close by the beach, and where it is now 

 seen to grow with extraordinary vigour in the face of the Atlantic. 



The Pinaster, which is the most beautiful of all the Pine family, 

 grows but slowly at first, and on that account may, for a while, dis- 

 appoint the expectation of the planter ; but, after a few years, it will 

 shoot with luxuriance. On the Capes of Virginia there are seen large 

 trees of this sort growing, and so near the sea that the roots are often 

 observed at high water-mark. The Pinaster grows singularly well on 

 on the western coasts of France ; and it is peculiarly adapted to the 

 eastern coasts of Scotland. 



The next Pine on the list, and by far the most valuable of the above 

 in respect to wood, is the Red Pine of Canada (P. rubra, vel resinosa.) 

 From the high geographical range of this Pine, it is well adapted to 

 associate with the P. sihestris in this country. Mackenzie found it in 

 Canada, beyond Lake Superior. The timber is excellent, and most 

 durable. It attains the height of eighty feet ; and planks of it, of forty 

 feet long, are often imported into all parts of Britain. Like the P. 



