6 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
enough, it would appear, to supply one of them. Which would nature seled under such circumstances ? 
We know that whenever a plant is feeble, moribund, or in danger, the first thing nature looks to is the 
propagation of the species. Often the first indication of a plant’s being in an unhealthy state is an excessive 
exuberance of flower and fruit, when, to use the expression made use of by Sir Charles Lemon in one of 
the passages above quoted, the plant kills itself by excessive bearing. The same thing happens in the 
growth of the shoot and the cone above figured. In the weakly state of the subject, nature gives the pre¬ 
ference to the development of the cone over the shoot. The branch cannot support both, and the favoured 
cone gradually usurps the place of all the others, both shoot and cones, shoving them aside, so that they 
by-and-by drop off. It is not a matter of conjecture. Fig. 22 is a sketch of a young shoot of P. Lemon- 
iana in which the favoured cone has become abortive from some cause (apparently the 
attack of an insect), after having grown a certain length, and we have here the leading 
shoot of the branch still present, only shunted a little out of the way by the pressure of the 
nascent cone. Nothing can more clearly prove that there is no 
conversion of leading shoot into cone. This illustrative specimen 
is taken from an example of P. Lemoniana growing in the Royal Horticultural 
Society’s Garden at Chiswick, and originally supplied by Sir Charles Lemon him¬ 
self The tree there still preserves its constitutional idiosyncrasy. The cones are 
still produced singly at the termination of the branchlets; but the situation must, 
to a certain extent, be more favourable to its growth than that at Carclew, for the 
cone, although single, has increased in size, and lost the special characters which 
Sir Charles gives as characterising the cone: For example, although still smaller 
than the cone 01 the Pinaster , it is not very much so, and is nearly twice the size 
of the cones figured by Sir Charles. Fig. 23 represents it; it is not so ovate as 
they are, has more of the form of the Pinaster cone, and the scales are not unarmed, many having the 
umbo terminating in an acute point. 
In the Pinaster , as in all Pines, individuals occur which produce smaller cones and shorter leaves 
than others. These occur mixed up with the others. In the Landes of Bourdeaux they are only 
occasional, but as we go farther north and into a colder climate they become more frequent. They 
abound, according to Bose, in the barren sands on the west coast of France, in the neighbourhood of 
Mans; and Loudon remarks that, judging from the specimens with cones which he had received from 
different parts of the country, these small-coned individuals seem to be common in England. M. Loise- 
leur des Longchamps supposed these less flourishing individuals to be a variety of the species, and 
described it under the name of P. Pinaster minor , while the normal more flourishing individuals came 
to be named P. Pinaster major. Bose, mistaking the nature of the phenomenon, supposed them to be 
hardier and more suitable to a cold climate than the var. major; while, on the contrary, the truth is that 
the so-called variety consists merely of stunted individuals of that very kind occasioned by a climate not 
sufficiently warm for its perfect development. 
The tree has been a favourite for some time, and has been apparently more extensively and for a longer 
period introduced and cultivated in other countries than most other Conifers. It is so cultivated in China, 
Nepaul, New Holland, St Helena, &c.; and botanists finding it in these countries, have sent home 
specimens and seeds, which have in consequence been named Pinus Chinensis , P. Nepalensis, P. Novce- 
Hollandica , and P. St Helenica. They are, however, merely the produce of the normal species, 
introduced and cultivated in the country named. 
Geographical Distribution. —The Pinaster is a native of what is called the Mediterranean district of 
Europe. It occurs in Spain and Portugal, and is abundant in the south of the former, as Estremadura, 
and the west of the latter. It also occurs on the opposite coast of Algeria. A tree which is met with 
in commerce under the name of the Pine of Edough, is, according to M. Carriere, probably nothing but 
the 
Kg- 23- 
