PINUS PINASTER. 
3 
Fig. 12. 
Natural size. 
Fig- i 3 - 
Female flower, magnified. 
Fig. 14. 
Scale and bract of female flower, magnified. 
Fig. 13 shews a single female young catkin magnified ; figs. 14 and 15 the scale and bradf of the flower 
in different positions, magnified. Next year’s shoot leaves them behind in a cluster or star-like clump at its 
base, the young lateral shoots sprouting 
out above them. The star-like cluster 
of cones is the feature which has given 
the name Pin -aster to this section of the 
Pines. The young cones are at first 
purple. They very soon, however, be¬ 
come green; and the second year, by 
the time the cone becomes mature, the 
green turns into a rich fawn-colour. 
They are arranged in a succession of 
whorls, varying in number, which to¬ 
gether form a large cluster of cones. The numbers in the clusters are very variable. M. Loiseleur des 
Longchamps, in the “ Nouveau Duhamel,” states, on the authority of Dr Thore of Dax, that on the sandy 
Landes of Bourdeaux, where the trees send down their tap-roots to a great 
depth, clusters are sometimes found containing as many as 30 or 40, or even 
80 or 100 cones. The full-grown cone is from 4 to 6 inches in length, and 
from 11 to 2\ inches in breadth at the broadest part. It is conical, but more 
developed on the exposed side than the other [see plate]. The scales 
' 
[figs. 16 and 17, representing the inner and outer side, and 18 a side view] 
are from 1 to R inches in length, and from \ to J in breadth at the widest 
part. The apophysis is rhomboidal and pyramidal, transversely divided by a raised keel, with a hard rhom- 
boidal umbo in the centre, of an ash-grey colour, terminating in a small sharp point. The 
inner side is all dark-brown except a narrow edging of pale-fawn colour parallel to the 
margin. The remains of an obliterated defaced brafif lie at the base of the back of the scale 
o 
[fig- 19]. The seeds have a broad but not very long wing [fig. 20] ; it is from 1 to \\ or 
c . . . . Fig. 19. Fig. 20. 
if inches in length, and about half an inch in breadth. The seed itself is about three- Bract. Wing of seed, 
eighths of an inch in length, and not quite one-fourth in breadth ; it is brown and without spots. The 
cotyledons are seven or eight in number. 
The tree flowers in April in the Landes, but later in England (May and June), and the fruit does 
not attain maturity until the autumn of the following year. 
This Pine has a deep tap-root—Loudon says deeper (“ Arboretum,” iv. p. 2218) than any other Euro¬ 
pean species, and where the soil is dry and sandy it descends perpendicularly into it like the root of a 
broad-leaved tree. The horizontal roots, on the other hand, are few compared with those of the other 
Pines; so much so, that from its having few fibrous roots, it is often a matter of some difficulty to get the 
young plants to transplant with safety. The tree grows very rapidly; shoots of 5 feet in one year being 
sometimes met with. In twenty years’ time, a tree, under favourable circumstances, will reach 30 feet in 
height. The timber, as might be expedfed, is soft, and of little value for the ordinary purposes to which 
timber is put. A tree cannot be said to be worth much whose chief uses are derived from its combustion, 
as is the case with the Pinaster. 
Fig. 16. 
Fig. 17- 
Scales of cone, natural size. 
Fig. 18. 
Var. Escarena. —The characters of the variety Escarena are, according to Loudon and subsequent 
authorities, that the leaves are of a paler green than those of the type, and the cones shorter and more 
ovate. Loudon says it is the most distindt and handsome variety of Pinaster that he had seen. It 
was introduced into this country by the Earl of Aberdeen from the mountains near Nice, where it had 
been found by M. Risso, growing, though rather sparingly, about twelve or fifteen miles from the city. 
It may be very distindt in its native habitat; but judging from a specimen in the Horticultural Society’s 
[ 26 ] b Garden 
