CHAP. CX1II.

coni'ferte. pi'nus.

2203

in P. Pinaster, and all the pines which have either large and very scaly buds,or which produce a great number of male catkins. The female catkins areegg-shaped, reddish, becoming straight after flowering, and they are borne onpeduncles, from a in. to J in. in length, surrounded at the base with scariousscales; the fleshy scales which form the female catkin are terminated by ablunt triangular point, which is often persistent, and which, when the cone ismature, renders it very slightly prickly. The cones are commonly in pairs,but sometimes three and sometimes four occur together : they point hori-zontally and slightly downwards, and sometimes they are slightly curved, soas to be concave at the extremity of the side next the ground. They arefrom 2 in. to 3 in., or more, in length ; of a ruddy yellow or tawny colour, orgreenish. They attain their full size in the November of the second year, andshed their seeds in the April of the third year. The scales of the cones areremarkably distinct from those of P. sylvestris, and the prickly cones ofI'nops, and Pae'da, on the one hand, and from the hard, angular, regular-sided scales of the cones of the sections of Pinaster and Halepenses, on theother. The seeds of P. Laricio are greyish, and marked with black spots:deprived of their wings, they are scarcely -J- in. in length, but with the wingsthey are more than 1 in. The tree is readily known from P. sylvestris by itsmore conical form, and crowded, longer, and darker foliage; and from P. Pi-naster, from many of its branches being twisted, as it were, round the tree,and from its foliage being shorter, more slender, and much darker. The rateof growth, even in Britain, is more rapid than that of P. sylvestris in asimilar soil and situation; being, in young trees, in the climate of London,from 2 ft. to 3 ft. in a year. A tree in the Horticultural Society’s Garden(see the portrait of this tree in our last Volume), having been 12 yearsplanted, was, in 1834, 20 ft. high; and is now (1837) 25 ft. high. A shoot ofthe year 1820, with part of 1828, cut from a tree 5 years old, on M. Vilmorin’sestate at Barres, and sent to Mr. Lawson’s museum, measured 3 ft. in length,and 3J in. in circumference at the thickest end. The leading annual shoot ofa tree in the Horticultural Society’s Garden, which was blown off on August 20.1837, measured 2 ft. 6 in. in length, and £ in. in diameter at the lower end,where it had been pierced by an insect; and, though not arrived at their fullgrowth, its leaves, which are in part in threes, were 4 in. in length ; whilst thoseof the last year’s shoot, from which it sprang, were 85 in. In the Gardener'sMagazine (vol. i. p. 79.), it is stated, that, a young plant of P. Laricio beingplanted in 1817, at the same time with a young plant of P. sylvestris, on asandy hill in one of the coldest counties of the eastern part of England, in1825 the Scotch pine was only 6 ft. or 7 ft. high, while P. Laricio had attaineda height of upwards of 12 ft. In the arboretum of Messrs. Loddiges, thispine has attained a larger size than any other species, and thrives better thanany other, with the exception of P. Pinaster and P. Pinea, there being fourtrees, under the names of P. Laricio, P. L. taurica, P. taurica, and P. romana,from 20 ft. to 30 ft. high; while the Scotch pine and its varieties are notabove 12 ft. high, and the American pines not above half that height. InFrance, according to Thouin, P. Laricio grows two thirds faster than theScotch pine, placed in a similar soil and situation. The duration of the treein Corsica is from 70 to 80 years, and its average height about 130 ft. (40metres) ; and the diameter of the trunk from 23 in. to 27 in. (6 to 7 decime-tres). The finest young trees in the neighbourhood of London are in theHorticultural Society’s Garden; and the finest old tree at Kew, where it isnamed P. maritima, and of which a portrait is given in our last Volume.

Geography. The Pinus Laricio is a native of Corsica, and of various otherparts of Europe P. B. Webb, Esq., discovered it on Mount Ida, in Phrygia,and Mr. Hawkins found in Greece, on Cyllene, Taygetus, and the moun-tains of Thasos, a sort of pine which, from the description given in Walpole’sMemoirs relative to Turkey, is considered by Mr. Lambert to be this species.According to Baudrillart, it grows equally well on mountains of the secondorder in the interior of Spain, on the sandy plains along the shores of theMediterranean, and in a great part of the north of France. It is said to be