2208
ARBORETUM AND FRUT1CETUM.
PART 111.
white, having at the base a lan-ceolate, long-pointed, persistent,indurated scale. Catkins termi-nal, sessile; bracteated at thebase, with numerous lanceolatecuspidate scales; male catkinsnumerous, simple, cylindrical,li in. long, dense. Stamens mon-adelphous. Anthers linear, 2-celled, opening below longitudi-nally. Crest roundish, convex,repand. Pollen granular, sulphur-coloured ; female catkins ovate,ternate, furnished at the basewith numerous lanceolate, mem-branaceous, loose scales; green,erect, finally brownish, spread-ing. Scales short, roundish,thick, marginate, imbricated backwards; keeled and convex above. Cone generally ternate, ovate-oblong; 5 in. long, sessile, 2 in. in diameter atthe base, declinate-pendulous, ash-coloured, somewhat attenuated towardsthe apex, decurved; scales indurated, woody, dilated at the apex, tra-pezoidal, depressedly 4-angled; ash-coloured, elevated in the centre froma yellow conical tubercle terminated by a small spine. Seeds obovate;testa convex and crustaceous on both sides; wing slender, membrana-ceous, hook-shaped, oblong, acute, quite entire.” ( Lamb. Pin.,e d. 2., i. p. 14.)The chief circumstance in which P. (L.)Pallasidn« differs from P. Larlcio, judgingfrom the trees at White Knights, is in the length of the cones: the leaves arealso larger than those of P. Larlcio; and, on the whole, the difference may becompared to that which exists between Tllia europae'a and T. e grandifolia, orthe pin de Hageneau and the pin de Geneve. At the same time, we think itright to observe that there is a tree of P. Laricio in the botanic garden atWhite Knights, which produces both straight and crooked cones, which, thoughlonger than those generally borne by P. Larlcio, are shorter than those ofP. (L.) Pallas iana. The rate of growth appears to be the same as in P. Laricio.The finest trees in England of P. (L.) Pallasidna are, no doubt, those atBoyton, which, Mr. Lambert informs us, are between 60 ft. and 70 ft. high.There are a number of trees at White Knights, which are from 50 ft. to 00 ft.high, with trunks from 14<in. to 18 in. in diameter; but they are drawn up byother trees. They are in some places intermixed with trees of P. Pinaster,and the trunks are destitute of branches to the height of 20 ft. or 30 ft., sothat the only way of recognising them from below is by observing thetortuous direction of their branches. There are trees at Dropmore, 25 ft.high. Mr. Lambert remarks, in a letter to us, dated July, 1837, that, thoughhis trees produce plenty of cones annually, the seeds have never yet ripened.
Geography, History, Sfc. P. VuW&sidna is confined to the central regionsof the Crimea , forming considerable forests on the western declivity of thechain of lofty mountains which extend along the coast of the Black Sea . Itwas first introduced into England by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy of the Ham-mersmith Nursery, wiio raised a number of plants from seeds sent to themby Professor Pallas, from the Crimea , about 1790, and it was sold by them as P.tatarica. Of these plants, some were planted at Boyton, about 1793, of whicha few survive, and form trees between 60 ft. and 70 ft. high, although the soil onwhich they grow is scarcely 2 in. thick, on a bed of solid chalk. About the sametime, from 60 to 70 plants were planted at White Knights, by the Duke ofMarlborough, in good loamy soil, 20 or 30 of which still exist, and are from50 ft. to 60 ft. high ; but, being crowded in a wood of indigenous and otherfree-growing trees, they have not assumed handsome shapes; and, indeed,there are only branches on their upper extremities.
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