392 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



3 feet in diameter. At a height of 15 or 20 feet from the ground the 

 trunk usually divides into three or four main branches, about equal . 

 in size, which, after bearing away from one another, shoot straight up 

 and form separate summits, while the crooked subordinate branches 

 aspire, or radiate, or droop in loose ornamental sprays. The slender, 

 greyish-green needles are from 8 to 12 inches long, loosely tasselled, 

 and incline to droop in handsome curves, contrasting with the stiff, 

 dark-coloured twigs and branches in a very striking manner. No 

 other tree of my acquaintance, so substantial in body, is in its body 

 so thin and so pervious to light. The sunbeams sift through even the 

 leafiest trees with scarcely any interruption, and the weary, heated 

 traveller finds but little protection in the shade. It grows only on 

 the torrid foot-hills, seeming to delight in the most ardent sun-heat, 

 like a Palm, springing up here and there singly, or in scattered groups 

 of five or six, among shrubby white Oaks and thickets of Ceanothus 

 and Manganita, its extreme upper limit being about 4,000 feet above 

 the sea, its lower about from 500 to 800 feet. The generous crop of 

 sweet nutritious nuts (seeds) which it yields makes it a great favourite 

 with Indians and with bears. The cones are truly magnificent, 

 measuring 5 to 8 inches in length, and not much less in thickness ; 

 rich chocolate-brown in colour, and protected by strong, down-curving 

 hooks, which terminate in scales. Nevertheless, the little Douglas 

 squirrel can open them. 



"Indians gathering the ripe nuts make a striking picture. The 

 men climb the trees like bears and beat off the cones with sticks, or 

 recklessly cut off the more fruitful branches with hatchets, while the 

 squaws gather them in heaps, and roast, them until the scales open 

 sufficiently to allow the hard-shelled seeds to be beaten out. Then, 

 in the cool evenings, men, women, and children, with their capacity 

 for dirt greatly increased by the soft resin with which they are all 

 bedraggled, form circles around the camp-fires on the bank of some 

 stream, and lie in easy independence, cracking nuts, and laughing and 

 chatting, as heedless of the future as bears and squirrels." 



One plant, about sixteen years of age, was killed in the winter of 

 1890-91, but it was not a healthy or well-cultivated plant. 



The species may be hardy. 



P. serotina, Michaux, Fl. Bor. Amer. ii. 205 ; Lamb. Pinet, 

 ed. 1, i. t. 19 ; Pinet. Woburn. 47, t. 16 ; Link in Linn£ea, xv. 504 ; 

 Lindl. and Gord. Journ. Hort. Soc. v. 217 ; Knight, Syn. Conif. 30 ; 

 Carr. Tr. Gen. Conif. 341 ; Gord. Pinet. 209 ; Henk. and Hochst. 70. 

 P. rigida var. serotina, Engelm. Re vis. of the Genus Pinus, &c. 183 ; 

 Loud. Encycl. of Trees, 979, f. 1824-27. P. Tijzda /3 aloioecuroidea, 

 Ait. Hort. Kew. ed. 1, v. 317. 



Habitat. — North Carolina ; south, near the coast, to the head of 

 the St.' John's River, Florida. 



A tree 40-80 feet in height, with a trunk 2-3 feet in diameter 



