88 
CONIFERiE. THE PINUS, OR PINE TREE. 
require to be kept on the kiln for two days. 
The wings have then to be rubbed off, and 
the seeds sown in light land during the month 
of April. They should not remain in the 
seed-bed longer than two years, because they 
send down strong tap roots, without furnishing 
themselves with small fibres. This remark 
holds good with regard to this plant, so long as 
it remains in the nursery; for unless it is con- 
tinually shifted, it will be deficient in that 
bushiness of root, so essential to the species. 
One year seedling plants are ten shillings per 
thousand. 
Though it will seldom be found necessary 
for any person not in the seed business to 
erect a kiln for opening the cones of Conifers, 
it may be as well to state that the process is 
exceedingly hazardous. On account of the 
heat required (about 120 degrees Fahrenheit), 
and the inflammable nature of the cones them- 
selves, the probability is that inexperienced 
persons would set the kiln on fire. It should 
therefore in every instance form a detached 
building, and no boy should be allowed to 
tend the fire. The cones, after being so dried, 
form of all things the most desirable material 
for lighting fires. Threepence a bushel is rea- 
dily paid for them in the city of Norwich for 
that purpose. The seeds of the pinaster have 
a thick crust or shell about them ; and I have 
found it an excellent plan to steep them for 
a few days previous to sowing in water, kept 
as near as possible milk-warm. This helps 
them to vegetate. If sown in the usual way, 
a part of them only will come up three weeks 
afterwards, and the remainder during the sea- 
son. In dry weather watering the beds is 
absolutely necessary, when they are sprouting, 
because they vegetate, and then stop mid-way 
for want of moisture at their newly-formed 
roots. Seeds of the Pinaster may be always 
procured of the London seedsmen at from 2s. 
to 3s. per lb. ; but I am not aware that they 
keep the better variety, P. P. minor, dis- 
tinct from seeds of the common tree. 
Varieties. — These are numerous and impor- 
tant ; and as is the case with P. sylvestris, it 
may be safely questioned whether some of 
them are not of greater value than the species 
itself. At the same time, there are plants in 
nurseries belonging to the pinaster, which 
differ in name only, and which, having come 
from different -quarters of the globe, have on 
that account been considered worthy of a new 
title. Those received from Van Dieman's 
Land, America, and other places, have in all 
probability been gathered from trees raised 
from seeds, brought thither by emigrants many 
years since, and will present nothing really 
distinct from those already in the British 
Arboretum. Those considered distinct are 
tlie following : — 
P. P. Lemonianus, (Sir Charles Lemon's 
Pinaster). — Found in the woods of Sir Charles 
Lemon, at Carclew, Cornwall. In the Trans- 
actions of the Horticultural Society it is thus 
described : " In foliage it is similar to the 
pinaster ; but it differs in the general habit of 
the tree, and in the form and position of the 
cones. In the common pinaster, the cones, 
of which there are generally three or four 
together, are situated behind the shoots of the 
whorl, and, in the mature state, point back- 
wards. In this obscure species the cone is 
single, and it universally occupies the place 
of the leading shoot, the side shoots being 
behind it. The necessary consequence of this 
mode of growth is, that the tree can have no 
regular leader, but each year one of the side 
shoots strengthens, and continues the growth 
for the ensuing season ; the year following, 
the same process is repeated in another direc- 
tion, giving the stem of the tree a zig-zag 
appearance, which it never entirely loses." 
According to the statement of the forester at 
Westwick, Norfolk, the variety is to be found 
in the woods of his employer, Mr. Petre. 
P. P. minor. — A tree hardier than the 
species, and plentiful along the coasts of 
France, valuable on account of its braving 
the sea breeze, and growing on the most ste- 
rile tracts of land. Cones smaller than the 
species ; leaves stiffer, shorter, and broader. 
The tree does not grow so high as the species, 
hence at Westwick, in Norfolk, where it 
abounds, it is called the " False Pinaster." It 
is also found in the woods of Mr. Marsham, 
of Stratton Strawless, where the writer had a 
large quantity of the cones collected ; and 
from the seeds extracted he has now in his 
nursery grounds about 50,000 thriving plant. 1 ? 
of this valuable tree. The wood is more com- 
pact and durable than the common pinaster. 
P. P. Escarenus, Risso. — A very distinct 
variety, the leaves of the same length as in 
the species, but of a lighter green. Cones 
small, short, egg-shaped. Introduced by the 
Earl of Aberdeen, who presented a specimen 
to the London Horticultural Society, in whose 
garden is a tree fifteen feet high. 
P. P. variegatis. — This is a plant with 
variegated foliage, which forms its only dis- 
tinction. A specimen in the garden of the 
Horticultural Society is from fifteen feet to 
twenty feet high. The mode of propagating 
this variety is by grafting it on the common 
tree ; but it is by no means in general favour. 
P. P. nepalensis. — Raised from seeds sent 
by Dr. Wallich, and is the least distinct of 
all the varieties. The tree is somewhat more 
compact than the species, and the branches 
more horizontal in their growth. The cones 
are also narrower. 
P. P. Massoniana. — A variety probably 
