PINUS CEMBRA. 
3 
for the reception of the feeds, and alfo on the back by the preffure of the feeds behind it. The feeds 
wholly apterous [figs. 12 and 13], obovate, acute at the bafe, very obtufe at the apex, convex and gibbous 
on the back, the remainder flattifh, the teft or fhell thick offeous. Cotyledons from 6 to 13 in num¬ 
ber [fig. 14]. 
Defcription .—In its native country this tree reaches the height of 120 feet, when it becomes a mag¬ 
nificent object; a tall pile of foliage, with a fine rounded oak-like top. In Britain it fcarcely exceeds 
50 feet, which may perhaps be owing to the fa6t that it is a flow-growing tree, and the oldeft trees here are 
only about 115 years old. In the earlier ftage of its growth it is an erefit pyramidal tree, diftinguifhed by 
its dark-green foliage, with filvery gleams from the argenteous Tides of the leaves. To our eye it is a molt 
beautiful tree. All taftes are not alike, however. Perhaps it needs an inftrucfted eye—an eye educated 
in firs—to appreciate its beauty. A writer in the ‘Edinburgh Review’ (October 1864), fpeaking of the 
comparatively late period at which this fpecies was introduced into Britain, and which he thought was to be 
accounted for by its having been confounded with the Scotch Fir, relates the following anecdote:—“ The 
molt important of the negledted fpecies was the Cembra, a tree which, although it appears to our eyes diftindt 
enough from the Scotch Fir, has yet fufficient general refemblance to render it probable that it may have 
been miftaken for it. True, its leaves are five inftead of two in the flieath, lefs rigid, of a darker green, 
with a beautiful filver lining, which gives a peculiar hoary character to the foliage when moved by the wind ; 
the cone is alfo quite different, and the feeds are large, winglefs, and good to eat, forming an agreeable 
nutty-flavoured addition to the food of the inhabitants of the countries in which it grows. But we have 
heard of the two being confounded in our own times under circumftances which may make us very 
lenient to any fimilar miftake in the days of our anceftors. A nobleman in the weft of Scotland, fome 
twenty years ago, poffeffed a grove of Cembras of greater age and beauty than were to be found anywhere 
around. They were the pride of his heart and the delight of his eyes. They had been planted along 
with Scotch Firs which had ferved as nurfes, but were now moftly removed, although, being of more 
rapid growth than the Cembras, fuch as remained had overtopped them. He had got a new gardener or 
forefter juft at the time that he was obliged to leave his country refidence to attend to his duties in Parlia¬ 
ment. Being, however, more of a country gentleman than a politician or ftatefman, he hurned home as 
foon as poffible, and one of the firft vifits after his arrival was to his cheriftied grove of Cembras. Slowly 
and benignly he paced up the hill like one prolonging the pleafure of anticipated enjoyment. He came 
down more quickly, and lefs benignly—not benignly at all, indeed; foi when he leached the angle wheie 
he fhould have come in view of his grove, he looked for the Cembras in vain. He ftarted, flared, and 
rufhed forward; not a Cembra was there; the Scotch Firs were left alone in their glory; and there ftood 
the new gardener fniug upon the fpot, with the well-fatisfied finiik of one who had deferved wed of his 
mafter—the mens confcia recli beaming on his countenance ready to claim the meed of giatitude for 
having fo well thinned out the grove. Believing the Cembras to be merely fmaller firs, he had cut them 
down^and left nothing but the taller Scotch Firs. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. The honeft 
man had heard that in thinning it was wife to take the weak and leave the ftrong, and had acted upon it, 
without fufpectmg that he was dealing with two diffeient quantities. 
Mr Maxtone Graham of Cultoquhey, near Crieff, in Perthfhire, has a very fine fpecimen, of unufually 
clofe habit and ereH growth (the variety called by Carriere P. Cembra stricla), which fuffered in a fome- 
what fimilar way from the prediledions of his gardener years ago. It encroached upon a neighbouring 
blackberry bufh, and the gardener pruned it year after year to give fpace to his blackberry bufh. The 
tree is a fpecimen one which coniferous enthufiafts come from a diftance to fee , but it ftill bears a flight 
hollow in its fide, marking the place where it was cut away to make room for its more favoured rival. 
There are educated eyes, however, which fee no beauty in the Cembra. Even Mr Foudon fpeaks of 
it as formal and not handfome. He fays, “ Though we hold it to be fcarcely poffible for a pine to be 
otherwife than ornamental (if it were for no other reafon than its being an evergreen), yet we cannot help 
r, confiderine 
