PINETUM BRITANNICUM 
2 
from his partner M. Besserer, but we have no assurance that the same names are represented by the same 
things in both instances, although we have no reason to doubt it. If they are, our opinion is not the same 
as Mr. Gordon’s. We find P. Bonapartea distinct from this species, and also from Roezl’s P. Don Pedri, 
his P. Veitchii, his P. Durangensis , and his P. Popocatapetli. We may add that Mr. Gordon’s own 
description of P. Bonapartea agrees better with P. Loudoniana than with P. Ayacahuite. For example, 
he says the seeds of Bonapartea are large, which is the case with Loudoniana , although not with 
Ayacahuite , in which they are only 2 lines in length. 
Geographical Distribution. —The following are the localities where this species has been noticed:— 
viz., at Omitlan, near the hacienda of Guerrero; on the mountains in the provinces of Chiapas and 
Oaxaca, especially on the higher parts of the Combre mountains and about Cosiquiriachi and Mount 
Pelada. Mr. Gordon states that “it is also very common on the mountains of Ouezaltenango, at an 
elevation of 8500 feet, and on the neighbouring mountain of Santa Maria, where it is called ‘ Tablas’ by 
the inhabitants, and ‘Ayacahuite’ by the Mexicans;” but he does not give his authority for the state¬ 
ment. Endlicher gives its range of latitude as from 16 0 to 18 0 N. 
History. —First observed by C. Ehrenberg near Guerrero in Mexico, and communicated by him to 
Dr. Schlechtendal, who, in 1838 (being then editor of the Linncea :), published a description of it in that 
journal, along with descriptions of some other Mexican Pines. It is stated by M. Carriere to have been 
found by Hartweg in Mexico in 1840, and to have been then sent home by him; but he does not appear 
to have met with it in his second expedition in 1845 and following years, as it is not named in Bentham’s 
“ Plantae Hartwegianae,” which is the record of the plants procured by him on that expedition. It was 
subsequently introduced into this country by M. Roezl. 
Properties and Uses. —This species is probably applied to similar uses to those of its allies, Pinus 
Strobus , &c. We have no information on the subject, except Gordon’s statement that the wood is white 
and soft, and Messrs. Henkel and Hochstetter’s addition, probably an inference by way of corollary, that it 
is little worth. But there is a hint given by the name “ Tablas,” which, according to Mr. Gordon, is 
applied to the tree by the inhabitants of Santa Maria and its neighbourhood; which would seem to indicate 
that it perhaps deserves a more favourable character. “Tablas,” in Spanish, signifies the wood out of 
which tables and similar articles of furniture are made, as well as the articles themselves. We may, 
perhaps, therefore be entitled to infer that it is used by the inhabitants for upholstery and carpentery 
purposes. The seed is too small to be of use as an article of food. 
Culture. —It cannot be condemned as a tree wholly unfitted for this country; still less can it be called 
perfectly hardy. Messrs. Henkel and Hochstetter say that it stood the severe winter of 1860-61 in 
England unhurt. Mr. Palmer’s tables tell a different tale. They contain reports of the worst effects of 
that winter on this tree at sixteen places. At seven of these the tree was killed, at five uninjured, at two 
much injured, and at two less injured. There are, of course, few large trees in this country, although the 
one in Messrs. Paul’s nursery at Cheshunt, from which the figure above cited was taken, is of considerable 
height (say 36 feet), and in 1882 bore numerous cones. One of the trees killed in 1860-61 was at Thorpe 
Perrow in Yorkshire, and it had reached 16 feet in height, and another at Highnam Court, Gloucester¬ 
shire, was 14 feet in height. It was observed at Ashdean, in Sussex, that it did not seem to mind the 
cold so much, but that it suffered severely from salt winds from the south-west. At Castle Kennedy it 
escaped without injury, and grows freely in a well-sheltered situation. 
Commercial Statistics. —Price in 1851, small plants 21s. each. It is not quoted in any catalogues of 
recent date, nor is it named in the list of seeds of MM. Vilmorin of Paris, at the end of this work. 
