CHAP. CXIII.
coni'feral jpi'nus.
2161
plants of 4 or 5 years’ growth, are not glaucous, the seminal leaves, andthe leaves of young plants of 2 or 3 years’ growth, are entirely so. Theseeds of the Scotch pine come up in about 3 or 4 weeks after they are sown :the growth is not above 3in. or 4in. the first year; the second, if on agood soil, they will grow from 4 in. to 6 in.; and the third year the plantsbegin to branch, and attain the height of from 14 in. to 2 ft., according to soiland situation. In the fourth and fifth years, if not transplanted, or if they havebeen transplanted carefully in the second year, they begin to push strongly,making a leading shoot from 1 ft. to 3 ft. in length, according to soil andsituation; and they continue growing vigorously for half a century, or even acentury, according to circumstances. In 10 years, in the climate of London,plants will attain the height of 20 ft. or 25 ft.; and in 20 years, from 40 ft. to50 ft. Evelyn mentions a Scotch pine which grew 60 ft. in height in littlemore than 20 years. Like almost all the other species of the .dbietinae, theScotch pine is a social tree, and is always found in masses of considerableextent. The tree is considered full grown, and fit to be cut down for timber,at 50 or 60 years’ growth; but where it grows slowly, as in its nativehabitats in the north of Scotland and other cold climates, it will continue in-creasing for three or four centuries. Mr. Farquharson of Marlee, in theHighlands of Scotland, Mr. Strutt informs us, cut over close to the root atree of 2.) ft. in diameter, which is nearly the size which a Scotch pine, rearedin a nursery, and then planted out, would attain in about 50 years; and hecounted exactly 214 circles, which made this self-sown tree about four timesthe age of the cultivated one. In Sweden, Dr. Walker informs us, 360 circleshave been numbered in a tree that was composed entirely of sound wood.The largest Scotch pine that was ever cut down in Scotland is supposed tobe one which stood in the Forest of Glenmore, which was called the Lady ofthe Glen, and of which there is a plank in the entrance hall of GordonCastle, 6 ft. 2 in. long, and 5 ft. 5 in. broad. The annual layers of wood, asreckoned by Mr. Grigor (see Highland Soc. Trans., xii. p. 128.), are about235. The plank bears the following inscription on a brass plate:—
“ In the year 1783,
William Osbourne, Esquire,
Merchant of Hull, purchased of the Duke of Gordon the Forest of Glenmore,the whole of which he cut down in the space of twenty-two years, and built,during that time, at the mouth of the river Spey, where never vessel wasbuilt before, forty-seven sail of ships of upwards of 19,000 tons burthen. Thelargest of them of 1050 tons, and three others, little inferior in size, are nowin the service of His Majesty and the Honourable East India Company.This undertaking was completed at the expense (of labour only) of above70,000/. To His Grace the Duke of Gordon this plank is offered, as a speci-men of the growth of one of the trees in the above forest, by His Grace’smost obedient Servant,
Hull, September 26, 1836. William Osbourne.”
The Scotch pine which is supposed now to contain the most timber of anytree of the species about Gordon Castle is one of which the skeleton portrait,Jig. 2049., was kindly sent to us by the Duke of Richmond. It is about100 ft. high, and contains 260 cubic feet of timber, exclusive of the branches.Some of the finest single specimens of Scotch pine in the neighbourhood ofLondon are at Whitton and Pain’s Hill, where some of them are between80 ft. and 90 ft. high, and, standing singly, are very picturesque in their generalforms. A portrait of one of the handsomest of those at Pain’s Hill, byby H. Le Jeune, Esq., is given in our last Volume. There are also a few veryfine specimens at Muswell Hill, a portrait of one of the most picturesque ofwhich, by W. A. Nesfield, Esq., is given in our last Volume. There areothers at Studley, in Yorkshire, of one of which, 82 ft. high, Jig. 2050., to ascale of 24 ft. to 1 in., is a portrait by H. W. Jukes, Esq.; and there is a very
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