256 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
many, Poland, and Russia, as well as millions of acres in our 
own country, abound with immense and interminable forests 
of Pine. Capable of enduring extreme cold, growing on 
thin soils, and flourishing in an atmosphere, the mean tem- 
perature of which is not greater than 3 7° or 38° Fahrenheit , 
they are found as far north as latitude 68° in Lapland ; 
while on mountains they grow at a greater elevation than 
any other aborescent plant. On Mount Blanc, the Pines 
grow within 2,800 feet of the line of perpetual snow.* In 
Mexico, also, Humboldt found them higher than any other 
tree ; and Lieut. Glennie describes them as growing in thick 
forests on the mountain of Popocotapetl, as high as 12,693 
feet, beyond which altitude vegetation ceases entirely.! 
The Pines are, most of them, trees of considerable mag- 
nitude and lofty growth, varying from 40 to 150, or even 
200 feet in height in favourable situations, rising with a 
perpendicular trunk, which is rarely divided into branches, 
bearing much proportionate size to the main stem, as in 
most deciduous trees. The branches are much more hori- 
zontal than those of the latter class, (excepting the Larch.) 
The leaves are linear or needle-shaped, and are always 
found arranged in little parcels of from two to six, the num- 
ber varying in the different species. The blossoms are 
produced in spring, and the seeds, borne in cones, are not 
ripened, in many sorts, until the following autumn. Every 
part of the stem abounds in a resinous juice, which is ex- 
tracted, and forms in the various shapes of tar, pitch, rosin, 
turpentine, balsam, etc., a considerable article of trade and 
export. 
As ornamental trees, the Pines are peculiarly valuable for 
* Edinburgh Phil. Journ. 
t Proc. Geological Soc. Lond. Arb. Brit. 
