532 EVERGREEN TREES AND SHRUBS. 
of the exquisite plume-like tufts of the more delicate Pinus excelsa. 
Judging by the Parsons specimen, it is a more beautiful lawn tree 
than either the white, Scotch, or the Austrian pines, less rough- 
branched and formal than the Austrian, of a more pleasing green 
than the Scotch, and more massy-foliaged than the white. In its 
general appearance it bears the same relation to the Austrian pine, 
that the Pinus excelsa does to the white pine; that is to say, it is 
proportionally of more free and graceful foliage * It has proved 
quite hardy in H. W. Sargent’s place at Fishkill, on the Hudson. 
The Bhotan Pine. P. excelsa .—Leaves in five’s, five to seven 
inches long, slender, loose, and pendulous, like plumes. Cones 
cylindrical, larger than the leaves, and pendulous. Color of foliage 
a light green. 
This queen of the pines is a native of the southerly slopes of 
the Himalayas, in latitudes 27 0 to 35 0 , and at elevations of from 
five thousand to twelve thousand feet above the sea ; where it at¬ 
tains a height of one hundred and fifty feet, and forms in open 
exposures a broad pyramidal mass. A traveller in the Himalayas 
says: “It is remarkable for its drooping branches, whence it is 
frequently called the ‘ weeping fir.’ ” There are yet no specimens 
in this country large enough to indicate with certainty what the 
habit of a full-grown tree will be, but the exquisite bending plumes, 
formed by each annual growth of leaves, which gleam with a silvery 
light as they are moved by the wind, are alone enough to entitle it 
to the name of the weeping pine, were it not a misnomer to apply 
the term “weeping” to a tree so radiant with sunny cheerfulness. 
As far as we can judge by the specimens now growing in this 
country, this pine spreads more in proportion to its height than the 
white pine—more like the Scotch—and retains a strength of growth 
in its lower horizontal branches, that gives promise of a nobler 
* Since the above was written, the large trees in Parsons’ specimen grounds at Flushing have 
died, while small trees in their nurseries are uninjured. Mr. J. R. Strumpe, the very skillful 
propagator of that establishment, and a careful observer, does not consider the misfortune as 
conclusive of the lack of hardiness of this species, as our own native white pines occasionally 
die in the same way from some unseen cause; but it is certainly suggestive that our climate 
may not be adapted to it. These specimens had been grown with great luxuriance in a rich 
deep soil. Perhaps excessive feeding had something to do with their premature death. 
