CONIEERiE. — THE PINUS, OR PINE TREE. 
The varieties of this tree are very numer- 5 
ous, but few of them are worth much notice 
except P. sylvcstris horizontals, or the red- 
wooded Highland Pine of Scotland, which is 
infinitely more valuable than the species itself. 
It is at once distinguished from the common 
tree by its smooth and red bark ; by its 
suddenly diverging into innumerable thick 
branches like the Cedar of Lebanon ; and in 
old age somewhat resembling the bold and 
rigid figure of the oak. The safest criterion, 
however, by which we can judge of the 
variety is by the cones. " By their fruit ye 
shall know them." The appearance and 
length of the spicula leading to a distinction, 
is deceitful, and ought to be looked upon with 
considerable caution. The cones of the true 
Highland Pine are much smaller and rounder 
than those of the common tree, having, when 
compared with the others, an appearance of 
stuntedness, as if the tree which bore them 
had been in ill health all the summer. The 
trees of the variety do not bear one-fourth of 
the quantity of cones found on the species ; 
and hence it is that nurserymen go on propa- 
gating that kind which they can the more 
readily procure. There is every reason to 
believe that the red-wooded tree is the 
original and true Scotch Pine, but as the 
other one bears seed in such quantities it has 
been, in most cases, resorted to, because, as 
already observed, the cones can be had at a 
much cheaper rate. 
It would be difficult to say too much in re- 
commending the hard-wooded tree in prefer- 
ence to the common soft-wooded variety, 
which, compared with the other, is but a 
worthless castaway. It will be readily ad- 
mitted that in the ordinary branches of hus- 
bandry, it is of great importance to lay down 
even an annual crop with seed of a pure 
variety and kind, which has not become in 
any respect degenerate. Of how much greater 
consequence is it, therefore, to exercise every 
care in securing the genuineness of a crop 
destined for the growth of fifty, or perhaps a 
hundred years. In the northern parts of 
Scotland, the timber of the Highland Pine, 
when situated near shipping places, is fre- 
quently sold in large quantities at from Is. 6d. 
to Is. 8d., whilst that of the common variety 
fetches at most from 6d. to lOd. a cubic-foot — 
the best of all proofs of the preference it com- 
mands in that quarter, and its great superio- 
rity over the other as a timber tree. 
Keeping the better variety in view, there- 
fore, the properties and uses of the species are 
exceedingly numerous. The timber shipped 
at the ports of Riga, Dantzic, Memel, and 
Petersburg, are chiefly of the Scotch Pine. 
The longest and best masts received from 
those ports are of the same tree. An immense 
majority of the deals and joists used in house 
carpentry, are also of this description of wood ; 
and it would be difficult indeed to select any 
piece of work, where wood is required, where 
this species of timber is not to be found. It 
is used as posts and rails for fencing, in the 
manufacture of agricultural implements, in 
raising out-buildings, for ladders, scaffolding, 
doors, windows, tables, and chairs. Without 
it, rural and domestic comforts and conve- 
niences would have been a century behind the 
almost perfect state in which we find them in 
the present day. For fuel, the wood of this 
tree is eminently suited. In this respect it has 
been, and is, a great ameliorator of the cold and 
wintry north, shedding a happy gleam around 
the fire-side of many a mountaineer. It is also 
used extensively in its living state, to abate 
the severity of the climate, experienced in 
elevated districts throughout Britain, either 
by planting it alone in the shape of a hedge or 
fence, or by placing it in belts or strips. Its 
resinous products must not be forgotten. 
These are turpentine, tar, and pitch. The 
roots of this tree, after being thoroughly dried, 
are split up into thin pieces resembling laths, 
which are used by the Highlanders of Scot- 
land instead of candles. They afford a toler- 
able light, but require almost constant atten- 
tion. 
Many writers on trees have set down this 
pine as a sombre, uninteresting object, devoid 
of all merit as an ornamental plant, and fit 
only for the recesses of the forest. Unluckily, 
a great many of those who have published 
treatises on trees have been sadly deficient in 
the imaginative, and have had, in reality, no 
eye for anything akin to the picturesque. 
The truth is, several of them have risen from 
that class who have been accustomed all their 
lives, hatchet in hand, to cut up brushwood, as 
it is called, which is nothing more or less than 
the pine, — that pine which has been noticed 
in undying strains by Virgil, Ovid, Horace, 
Statius, Catullus, and all the masters of anti- 
quity, — so that by force of habit our modern 
men of taste have been led to associate it with 
all that is mean and common. We forgive 
them. Viewed on its native hills, there is an 
air of grandeur and antiquity, a solemn and 
solitary beauty about this species of pine, that 
renders it, perhaps, the most picturesque of 
any of the cone-bearing tribe. In spring-time, 
it is true, it does not appear in the gay dra- 
pery of the birch, or in the soft apparel of the 
poplar, but as a grand and striking object, it 
has its worshippers, dingy and funereal though 
it be called. To have a right estimate of its 
character, however, it must be seen holding 
converse with the storm on the solitary heights 
of Braemar, Abernethy, and Cairngorm — the 
Lebanons of our island — where it has grown 
