PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
4 
confidering the Cembran Pine, when compared with other fpecies, as rather monotonous, both in form 
and colour. The fummit of the tree, however, and its purple cones, we acknowledge to be very beautiful. 
That we may not run the flighted: rifk of injuring the tree, we may mention that Mr Lambert, fo far from 
entertaining the fame opinions as we do refpedling it, looks upon it as one of the handfomeft trees of the 
genus Pinus ” (ed. 2, i. p. 49). In this we heartily agree with Mr Lambert. It is a tree of flower 
growth than moft other firs, feldom growing fafter than one foot in a year. Loudon records a tree at 
Whitton, planted by the Duke of Argyll in 1746, as the largeft in England in 1837, and this, although 
91 years old, was only 50 feet in height, with a trunk 18 inches in diameter at the bafe. 
Geographical Dijlribution .—The neareft points to England where the Cembra is found growing wild, 
are the mountains of Dauphine in Prance, and the Alps in Switzerland. In the former it is rare, but be¬ 
comes more plentiful as we advance towards the eaft. It is found in all the Alps; in the Carpathian 
Mountains ; in Prance, Italy, Auftria, Syria, Hungary, and Tranfylvania. The elevation above the fea at 
which it is ufually found, is from 4000 to 6500 feet. An enthufiaft in trees, Sir John Nafmyth of Dalwick, 
thus writes us of the Cembra in its native land : “ Since my refidence abroad I have purpofely vifited many 
of the celebrated tree diftridls—for inftance, in the Upper Inn Valley. You can have no idea of the Larch 
and P. Cembra (commonly, or rather always, called by its more beautiful name the Arve—the pronounced 
a long). Amongft the Bernina Alps and glaciers I have been tired of meafuring Larch and Arven 12, 15, 
18 feet in circumference ; fome 12 feet in circumference at my height from the ground! The Arve attains 
a noble rounded top, and is literally the oak of the pine forefts.” It extends into Alia, forming vafi forefts 
in Siberia and the Tartarian Mountains. Its exact limits in Alia, however, are not known, but the long 
lift of provincial fynonyms above quoted from Endlicher fhews that its range muft be very great. Regel, 
in his “Tentamen of the Llora” of the Uffuri region, fays that it is found “about the mouth of the 
U ffuri, on the northern declivity of the Chechtfys ridge, near Surme. It is not rare in mixed woods. 
Specimens were gathered in flower in the beginning of June.” 
He ftates that in the region of the Uffuri only the typical form of P. Cembra, with rough-edged 
leaves, is found. Prom the Amur country, on the contrary, only the fpecies called by Pallas P. pumila , 
and by Regel P. Mandjhurica, is known. This is a perfectly fubftantive form, charadlerifed by its retain¬ 
ing its bufhy habit even in cultivation, and fhewing, by producing cones, that this is not due to want of 
maturity. It has other diftindlive charadlers, which will be found under the defcription of that fpecies; for 
we agree with Profeffor Regel in regarding it as diftindl, and have confequently not quoted the fynonyms 
ufually given of that variety under the head of this fpecies. 
We believe that there is a third form of the Cembra (which, however, we have not feen) which occu¬ 
pies the country between the Swifs Cembra and the Kamtfchatkan and Amourian fpecies. Pallas firft 
drew attention to it, and ftates that it is not found beyond the Lena. Sir Roderick Murchifon informs 
us that the fpecies which he faw in the Ural Mountains was diftindl from the Swifs fpecies. It is doubt- 
lefs the Siberian fpecies mentioned by Pallas ; and this gives us probably the weftern limit of that fpecies 
or variety. 
This, however, is not the variety known among horticulturifts as Pinus Cembra Siberica, which is 
merely an unufually luxuriant and long-leaved form of the common fpecies. The rows of ftomata on the 
leaves of this Siberian variety are on the whole more numerous than in the ordinary form—4 or 5 inftead 
of 3 or 4. In other refpedls we fee no diftindfion between them. 
The Cembra is reprefented in North America by Pinus flexilis, and in Mexico by P. Cembroides 
and P. edulis . There are other fpecies which belong to the Cembroid fedlion in Japan and Mexico, but 
they conftitute a diftindl fub-fedlion of it. 
Hijlory. —This tree is fo well marked, and its cone fo different from the Scotch Lir, that it is not fur- 
prifing that it has been known as a diftindl fpecies from the earlieft times. Its firft introduction into this 
country 
