ON FOREST TIMBER. 643 
ble of cultivation; the thinnings are well adapted for fuel, palings, 
and many other domestic purposes. Bishop Heber found the pines 
of the Himalaya mountains, at the height of nine thousand feet above 
the level of the sea. Two new species of pine, of more gigantic di- 
mensions than any that have hitherto been described in Europe or 
America, have been found on the western coast of South America ; 
the one grows to the height of 230 feet, and is upwards of fifty 
feet in circumference at the base, it has a rough corky bark, from 
an inch to twelve inches thick ; the leaves resemble those of the 
spruce, and the cones are small ; the timber is of good quality and 
very heavy. The other was discovered in Northern California ; it is 
a very majestic tree, and gxows to two hundred and fifteen feet in 
length, fifty-seven feet nine inches in circumference at three feet 
from the root, and seventeen feet five inches at one hundred and 
thirty-four feet ; the bark is uncommonly smooth, and the whole tree 
has a most graceful appearance ; the cones resemble those of the 
Weymouth pine, but are much larger, being on an average at least 
sixteen inches in length. 
Filberts, under proper management, are a profitable crop in an 
Orchard, but they are supposed to be great impoverishers of the land. 
More than one hundred thousand bushels of foreign nuts, are every 
year consumed in this country, most of which would succeed in our 
clinia te. 
The Hiccory rises to a considerable height, of nearly uniform 
thickness, as straight as a line, and without any lateral branches j it 
is therefore very j)robable, that if these trees were more generally 
cultivated, they would be found amongst the most valuable in this 
country. 
Hollies. — Their superiority, whether in point of utility or orna- 
ment, is universally acknowledged, they will thrive upon almost any 
soil, but thin soiled heights seem to be their natural situations. They 
make an impenetrable fence, and bear cropping. Many plants, like 
many animals are furnished with arms, these are either prickles as 
in the rose and barberry, which are formed from the outer bark of the 
plant ; or thorns as in the hawthorn which are an elongation of the 
wood, and hence more difficult to be torn off than the former ; or 
stings as in the nettles, which are armed with a venomous fluid, for 
the annoyance of naked animals. Many plants lose their thorns by 
cultivation, so will animals lose their ferocity, and some of them their 
horns. Hollies that grow wild in the woods, naturally lay their own 
branches, which as soon as they touch the ground freely take root ; 
with a little assistance from art, a sufficient number of well-rooted 
4 d3 
