CHAPTER XXXII

CHRISTMAS TREES AND OTHER PINE TREES

WHEN winter grips our land it is fitting to discourse about the sweet and refreshing pine trees which are especially associated in northern climes with the celebration of Christmas. The delicious perfume which they diffuse is destructive both of microbes and noxious insects, whilst they are always linked in our minds with glorious mountain-sides or breezy moorland, or the delightful sand dunes and grey rocks of the sunny shores of the Mediterranean. The decoration of trees on days of festival and joyful celebration with garlands, lamps, and gifts is an immemorial custom of mankind, and it is probably merely the accident of its being convenient in shape, evergreen, cleanly, and sweet-smelling that has led to the selection of the common spruce as the "Christmas tree." It was not until the reign of Queen Victoria that the custom of bringing a young spruce fir into the house, growing in its special flowerpot, and then decorating it and making it the centre of a children's festival, became established in England. The 25th of December was celebrated in pre-Christian times in Northern Europe as the beginning of the New Year, and it was only after much opposition adopted by the Roman Church in the sixth century as a feast day in celebration of the birth of Christ. The Puritans rejected it as idolatrous, but its observance was restored by Charles II. In Scotland it is still ignored, and in Latin countries presents (_strenæ_, or in French _les étrennes_) are given on New Year's Day and not on Christmas Day.

The spruce is in our part of the world the commonest of the great series of cone-bearing trees which we speak of as pines and firs. Botanists call this series or "natural order" of trees the Coniferæ, in reference to the fact that their flowers are cone-shaped growths consisting of scales set in a spiral order around a central stem. Each scale is more or less overlaid by a second small scale or "bract" (sometimes evanescent), and on the inner surface of the deeper scale the naked ovules are carried in the female cones, whilst the pollen-producing growths are similarly carried by the smaller and more delicate male cones. The ovules are exposed nakedly, and are, therefore, in a more primitive condition than those of ordinary flowering plants, in which they are overgrown and enclosed by the modified leaves which form the "pistil" or central part of the flower. Hence the conifers are called flowering plants with "naked seeds," or Gymnosperms, whilst the rest of the flower-bearing plants are called plants with "covered seeds," or Angiosperms. The cones are at first green (sometimes purple), and become brown as they ripen. The small loosely-packed male cones, less familiar to most people than the solid and large seed-bearing cones, are often of a fine crimson colour when young, and when ripe of a bright chestnut brown, but the cones of pine trees are with few exceptions (the Douglas fir is one) not brilliantly coloured nor set out to attract the eye, as are the flowers of most flowering plants. Though a young branch carrying its groups of green "needles," rich brown male cones, silver-white hairs and swelling seed-cones (Fig. 31) presents a very fine harmony of diverse colours, yet they are not constructed so as to attract the visits of insects. They do not require the services of insects to carry the pollen of the male cones to the ovules of the female cones. They produce an enormous amount of pollen, which falls in showers of yellowish-white dust, and is blown by the wind, far and wide, on to the female cones. Hence it is that though the cones are "flowers," and the pine trees are flowering plants, yet they have none of the beautiful shapes and colours which we associate, as a rule, with flowers--shapes and colours due to the modification in the latter of the leaves called "petals" which are set with attractive brilliancy around the stamens and pistil. The conifers are an ancient race, dating from geological ages before the chalk, when plants had not "learnt" (as they subsequently did) to colour their flowers and to provide nectar so as to ensure the visits of insects and the carriage by them of their pollen from plant to plant. Even in the group of plants with coloured flowers there are trees which have abandoned the production of colour in their flowers, and like the conifers depend upon the wind to carry their pollen instead of seeking the aid of insects.

The word "pine" is of Latin origin, and belongs properly to the South of Europe; the word "fir" is Teutonic, and is originally applied to the same trees in the North of Europe as those to which "pine" is applied in the South. It is of no use trying to determine what conifers should rightly be called "firs" or "fir trees," and which "pines" or "pine trees." There is complete confusion and indifference nowadays in the use of those words, and the botanists have in the past added to the confusion by their changing and uncertain use of the names Pinus and Abies. A definite system of naming has now been agreed upon, and we must, in order to understand one another in talking about conifers, strictly accept and adhere to the names at this moment assigned to them by the common consent of botanical authorities.

The Scots fir is Pinus sylvestris. "Pinus" is the name of a genus of conifers, and includes many species besides sylvestris, our own familiar Scots fir, which is often now spoken of by the queer, ill-sounding title of Scotch pine. The Norway spruce or pine, called often "common spruce," also "the spruce fir," and "Christmas tree," is the "Picea excelsa" of correct botany. There are several other species of the genus Picea. A third well-known conifer, the silver fir, is called by botanists "Abies pectinata"; there are many other species of Abies. Although it has such a familiar, sweet-sounding name, the silver fir is not a common tree in England, where it was introduced only three hundred years ago. It will not thrive at Kew Gardens. It is the common forest-making fir of the centre of France and of much of the mountainous country of Southern Europe,[14] but it is rarely to be seen in the Swiss mountains (only in certain relatively low-lying valleys). The pine forests of those mountains are almost exclusively formed by the spruce, with the addition of a few Scots firs and larches, and in some parts of the Arolla fir or pine.

[14] It is, according to botanical authorities, from the wood of the silver fir, which still grows on Mount Ida, that the Greeks, as related by Virgil, constructed the Trojan horse.

"Instar montis equum, divina Palladis arte Ædificant, sectaque intexunt _abiete_ costas! (A horse of mountain size they build By art divine of Pallas helped And weave its ribs with planks of fir). "Æneid," ii. 15.

The common larch is a fourth common kind of conifer. It is distinguished from other pine trees which flourish in England by shedding its needles so as to leave itself bare in the winter. It is called "Larix Europœa," and is closely related to the cedars. It was introduced into England in 1629.

Man by his migrations and trading journeys has had far more to do with the introduction and spreading of trees, and even of small flowering plants, from one country to another, than is commonly suspected. It appears that of the trees I have already mentioned only the Scots fir is really native to these islands. Even the Christmas tree, the common spruce, was introduced from the Continent by invading man after we had become separated by the sea from the mainland of Europe. The introduction took place, it seems, in very early times, and there is no record of the event. Peat deposits have been studied and their age estimated, and it is found that in those of the age of the neolithic men there are no remains of spruce, but only of Scots firs!

The conifers are remarkable not only for their "cones," but for the needle-like shape which their leaves often present, whence the latter are spoken of simply as "needles." Conifers are also distinguished by the fine aromatic oils which they produce in these needles and in their wood, which serve them as a protection against browsing animals, although to man their perfume is agreeable. In the Tyrol, near Cortina, I remember a little shop in the pine woods where you could buy the odorous essences extracted from the different species of conifers growing around, and each species had its own special perfume. Besides these aromatic oils, the conifers produce peculiar resins, such as colophon, amber, kauri gum, Canada balsam, Dammar varnish, and others, and also various qualities of turpentine, tar, and pitch.

I have mentioned the three commonest conifers which flourish in England, and have pointed out that only one of them--the Pinus sylvestris, or Scots fir--is really indigenous to our islands. It extends all over Europe, except the extreme south and west, and right through Russian Asia. In the Alps, at the height of 3000 to 5000 feet, it is represented by a dwarf recumbent species, the Pinus montana, or P. pumilio. There is another really native conifer in Britain which belongs to a peculiar family, that of the cypresses. This is the common juniper, called by botanists "Juniperus communis," a mere shrub, but still a beautiful little thing, noticeable for the fine perfume of its leaves, which is used for flavouring "gin," and for its peculiar minute and compact berry-like cones. It has a very wide range, flourishing throughout the north temperate region of Europe, Asia, and America. There is another juniper well known in England, namely, the Savin (Juniperus Sabina). This is not a native, but was introduced before 1548. It has powerful medicinal properties.

When we spend our holidays abroad in Switzerland or on the Mediterranean shores we come across many other flourishing, well-established kinds of pines, firs, and cypresses. And we need not leave England in order to make acquaintance with a very large number which have been introduced from abroad into plantations and parks, and grow under favourable circumstances, but cannot be said to have established themselves as naturalized inhabitants. Among those more anciently introduced is the cedar of Lebanon; of later introduction we have the Indian cedar or deodar, and the Weymouth pine, Pinus Strobus, a North American tree. Still later a veritable crowd of American, Himalayan, Japanese, and Chinese pine trees of one kind and another have been introduced by dealers and their rich clients, the owners of park plantations, so that it is now far easier to see in the grounds around great English houses all sorts of pine trees from remote regions of the earth than the British species, or those interesting European kinds which have some kind of community with them, and are, at any rate, objects of interest to the naturalist whose familiar ground is that of Europe. Most people are utterly perplexed by the number of kinds, and do not know one from another.

In order to discuss a little further in detail the commoner kinds of Coniferæ besides those which may be considered as truly British, and have been mentioned above, we must take a glance at the plants related to the natural order Coniferæ, and then at the divisions of that natural order into families and tribes. The Coniferæ are an order of the great class of Gymnosperms--one of two classes into which the flowering plants or Phanerogams are divided, the other being (as explained above) the Angiosperms (palms, grasses, lilies, and all our ordinary trees, shrubs, and flower-bearing herbs). The orders included under "Gymnosperms" are: First, an order, the Pterido-spermia, comprising certain remarkable fossil forms connecting them with ferns; second, the order Cycadeæ, an ancient group, of which only a dozen or so kinds survive to this day; third, the order Gnetaceæ, including Wellwitch's strange African plant and the little European Ephedras, resembling the plants called horse-tails; fourth, the order of the Gingko trees of Japan, called also Salisburiæ, with leaves like those of the maiden's-hair fern. They and one or two others are survivors of an important extinct group (the Gingkoaceæ), which we know by their fossil remains flourished in great numbers before the chalk period. Then we have: fifth, the order Taxaceæ (or yew trees); and, sixth, the order Coniferæ (or cypresses, pines, cedars, and firs). The first four orders, though very interesting, exceptional plants we will leave aside, as they do not come very near to the Coniferæ. The order of yew trees, Taxaceæ, however, does come close to the Coniferæ, and sometimes they are grouped together.

There is one truly native British example of the order Taxaceæ--the common yew tree, called "Taxus baccata" by botanists. Its leaves are "needles," like those of most conifers, but much flattened, and it has the sombre colour and the general aspect of some of the larger conifers. But its ovule-bearing flower, although it appears when young (Fig. 32, b) to be built up by several scale-like leaves like the cone of a conifer, does not continue in that form, and ceases to have any resemblance to a "cone." Only the terminal leaf or scale of the group enlarges and develops an ovule, and around this grows an open cup-like protection of the most delicate crimson colour--soft, sweet, and luscious (Fig. 32, c and a). It is as big as a pea, and is largely eaten by birds and by schoolboys! Yew trees have from time immemorial been planted and cared for in Great Britain, since its wood was formerly greatly valued for making archers' bows. Wild groves of yew trees, once existing, have been largely destroyed. Some of the finest are on the chalk hills of Surrey, where the yew flourishes alongside of the juniper. Very fine yew trees are often found growing, one or two together, in village churchyards, where they have been planted in remote times, just as cypress trees are to-day planted in cemeteries in the South of Europe. Yew trees with trunks from 30 to 50 feet in girth at 12 feet from the ground are known, and it is probable that some are as much as a thousand years old.

Many varieties of the yew tree occur in these islands. A celebrated variety is that in which the branches are all directed upwards rather than horizontally--a frequent form of variation in trees which more usually have spreading, nearly horizontal branches. This variety is called "fastigiate" (the "fastigiate" condition of the common cypress tree is the one usually cultivated, although there are common varieties with spreading branches), and in the case of the fastigiate yew it is accompanied by a variation in the disposition of the needles or leaves. Instead of being carried right and left in a single row on each side of the young branches, as is usual with yews, the needles are set all round the branch in spiral order (as they are in many conifers). This variety was found growing wild in Co. Fermanagh, Ireland, nearly two hundred years ago, and a couple of trees of it were then cultivated at Florence Court by the Earl of Enniskillen of that date. Thousands of cuttings have been sent from one of these two original trees, which is still vigorous (I saw it some thirty years ago at Florence Court) all over the world. It is known as the "Florence Court yew," or "Irish yew," and is commonly planted in gardens. But all are from cuttings of this one original tree, or cuttings of its cuttings, and all, like their parent, are female berry-bearing trees, for the male and female flowers grow on separate trees in the yew.

The foliage of the yew contains aromatic and other chemical products, which render it poisonous to cattle. It is said not to be poisonous when quite fresh, but only some time after cutting. This, however, needs confirmation. The yew makes an admirably compact and impervious screen when grown as a hedge, and has been largely used in gardens for this purpose. In the sixteenth century it was the custom to clip yew hedges, or small yew trees, into all sorts of strange shapes, birds, beasts, and crowns. The name "topiary" is given to this fanciful work. The popularity of the yew in the gardens of those days is due to the small number of our native evergreen shrubs and trees; they are yew, Scots fir, juniper, holly, privet, ivy, butcher's broom, box (a doubtful native), spurge-laurel, and mistletoe. Up to the end of the seventeenth century only a few evergreens had been introduced from abroad, viz., spruce pine, silver fir, stone pine, pinaster, the cedar of Lebanon, savin, arbor vitæ, evergreen oak, sweet bay, Portugal laurel, laurustine, and arbutus.

I have often wished to have some simple, straight-forward information as to conifers, so as to be able to know what differences among them are really recognized by botanists, and what are the correct names of those which one commonly sees. Having gathered that information, I propose to impart it, as far as may be consistent with brevity, to my readers, though I am afraid that to some it will prove a dull business. The order Coniferæ, from which the yew trees (Taxaceæ) are excluded, is divided into four families. These are: (1) the family Abietinæ, which comprises the true pines, and fir trees, and the cedars; (2) the family Araucarianæ, which includes the Monkey puzzle of South America and Australia, and the Dammar tree of New Zealand; (3) the family Taxodinæ, which is best known by the so-called Wellingtonia, or Sequoia, but includes several other genera and species; and (4) the family Cupressinæ, in which the juniper, cypress, and "arbor vitæ," or Thuya, are placed.

The form and size of the frequently needle-like leaves of coniferæ are not of so much importance in indicating the affinities of these plants as one might expect, although their grouping either in tufts or in rows is a matter of significance. In some of them the "needles," or leaves, are long and narrow (Abietinæ); in others they are broad and leaf-like (Araucarianæ); in others they are all or most of them reduced to mere ridges or short scales set quite closely to the leaf-bearing branch (many Cupressinæ and Taxodinæ). It is not possible to give, without going into botanical minutiæ, the items of structure by which the four families of conifers are distinguished from one another. It is best for the nature-lover who is not an adept in botanical details to think of them as grouped each round one well-known species. Thus the Abietinæ are grouped round the spruce pine, the Araucarianæ round the monkey puzzle, the Taxodinæ round the Wellingtonia, and the Cupressinæ round the juniper. In all but the last family the ovule-bearing scales of the female cone are arranged spiral-wise around a central supporting stem; in Cupressinæ they are few in number, very thick, and opposite to one another so as to form a globular rather than a cone-shaped body. In all but a few Cupressinæ and Araucarianæ the male and female cones are carried on the same tree, sometimes on separate branches, but usually on the same branch. The male and female cones are always distinct, and the female much the larger and more enduring.

The Abietinæ are divided into three tribes--(_a_) the spruces and silver firs (this group corresponding to the French _Sapins_), (_b_) the larches and cedars, (_c_) the Scots firs (_Pins_ of the French). Let us take first the group of spruces and silver firs. The Norwegian spruce is the type of the genus Picea. It is called _Pesse_ by the French, _Fichte_ by the Germans, and Picea excelsa by botanists. We may contrast it with the silver fir Abies pectinata (_Sapin des Vosges_ of the French, _Silbertanne_ of the Germans), which we take as the type of the genus Abies. In many respects the silver fir looks like the spruce. In both the stem is straight, reaching a height of 100 to 150 feet, regularly furnished with tiers of branches from the ground upwards. The leaves are needles, half an inch to an inch long, which stand out from the branchlets, but in the spruce they are quadrangular, green all over, and arise all round the branch, whilst in the silver fir they are flat, grooved on the lower surface, which is silver-grey in colour, and they tend to be disposed right and left in two rows. Each needle has a single resin canal in the spruce, but has two in the silver fir, as may be easily seen by cutting the needles across the length with a sharp knife (Figs. 33 and 34). Each scale-like ovule-producing leaf which goes to build up the ripe seed-bearing cone has (as in all conifers theoretically) an outer scale, called a "bract," attached to it which is very short and hidden in the case of the spruce cone, but is longer than the ovuliferous scale, and very obvious in the silver fir (Fig. 35). It has a triangular re-curved point, which gives the cones of that species a characteristic appearance (Fig. 36). The cones of the silver fir (5 to 6 inches long and 2 inches thick) are set upright on the branches, and when they have shed the seeds the scales fall off rapidly and leave the axis bare, whilst the cones of the spruce (about an inch shorter) are pendulous (Fig. 37), and their scales remain in position after the seed is shed.

There are many "spruces," other species of the genus Picea, from various parts of Europe, temperate Asia, and North America, which are cultivated in English parks and gardens. Such are the American white and red and black spruces, the Siberian, the Oriental, the Servian, and the tiger's-tail Japanese spruce. Then there is the beautiful variety of the blue American spruce, Picea pungens. The blue-grey colour of the needles is frequently obtained as a "variety" in the cultivation of different species of conifers, as also is the yellow, or golden-leaved, condition.

In the genus Abies, associated with the silver fir, are a whole series of American, Siberian, and Japanese species. An interesting one is the Californian Abies bracteata, which has thornlike processes on the cone 2 inches in length, corresponding to the re-curved spines on the cone of the silver fir. It was introduced into England in 1853, and specimens are growing in Eastnor Park, near Ledbury. The beautiful _pinsapo_ of the Spanish Sierra Nevada also belongs to the genus Abies, and may be seen in some English plantations. The Tsuga firs of Japan and North America are related to Abies, but are now placed in a separate genus (Tsuga), as also is the Douglas fir of North America (Pseudotsuga), which has been extensively planted in Great Britain. The Douglas fir is readily recognized by the decorative trifid outer scales or "bracts" of the rather short cone (Fig. 42). When freshly grown these cones have beautiful purple tints mingled with pale green.

The larches and cedars form the second group or section of the Abietinæ, distinguished by the fact that the needle-like leaves grow in tufts of twenty to forty at the end of short stumpy branchlets or "spurs" (Fig. 38). In the larches, which form the genus Larix, the needles fall off every autumn and leave the tree bare, the annually-renewed feathery foliage contrasting, by its fresh bright green colour, with the darker hues of the persistent needles of other conifers. The common larch (Larix Europœa) is a native of the mountainous regions of Central Europe. The French call it _Méléze_. There are Himalayan, Japanese, and North American species. The common larch when full-grown is 100 feet and more in height, and has the branches arranged in whorls of diminishing length, so as to give the "Christmas-tree shape" so common among coniferæ. It was introduced into England in the seventeenth century.

The cedars closely resemble the larches, but have the leaves or needles persistent, and the large cones take two years to ripen, instead of one year, as in all the conifers which I have hitherto mentioned. The cedars form the genus Cedrus, and three species are distinguished, namely: (1) C. Libani, the cedar of Lebanon; (2) C. Atlantica, the North African cedar of the Atlas mountains; and (3) C. deodara, the Himalayan cedar or deodar. They are now considered to be geographical varieties of one species. They differ chiefly in the set of the branches and foliage. The cedar of Lebanon has the trunk forked, and gives rise to large, unequally disposed branches, spreading horizontally; it may have a spread of 100 feet and a height of 70 feet. In this country it is often uprooted by the wind, or its branches are broken by a weight of snow, when it has attained nearly full growth. The deodar cedar is more Christmas-tree-like in shape, the trunk rarely is forked, and it attains, in its native mountains, a height of 250 feet. The Atlas cedar is in many respects intermediate in character between C. Libani and C. deodara. The cedar of Lebanon is undoubtedly the most majestic of the conifers grown in English parks. It was introduced in the year 1665. There are specimens growing in this country of which the trunk has a girth of 25 feet.

The third section of the family Abietinæ is formed by the genus Pinus, of which the Scots fir, or Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris), is the type. The Abietinæ of this genus are distinguished by their foliage. There are two kinds of leaves--the primitive ones, which are little, scale-like, green up-growths closely scattered on the young branches; and the secondary ones, which are long needles carried as a tuft or fascicle on a very stumpy branchlet. These tufts of needles are persistent (that is to say, are not shed yearly), and differ from those of the larches and cedars in consisting of but few needles in a tuft, the number being characteristic of different species, some having five, others three, others two, and the American Pinus monophylla having only one. The general shape of these trees is not tapering like the spruce with unforked trunk, but they usually shed the lower branches as growth goes on, and present in most cases a trunk carrying an umbrella-like expanse of foliage-bearing branches, or several such expanses. The scales which form the cones in the genus Pinus are (with few exceptions, such as the Weymouth pine) not flat and flexible, but are thickened, swollen, and even knob-like and wooden at the exposed part, which is armed with a weak or a strong prickle (see Figs. 39, 40, and 41). The cones do not ripen until the end of the second or third season; they may be, according to species, erect, pendulous, or horizontal, and vary in size in different species. In some they remain closed on the trees for an indefinite period (even fifteen or twenty years), until opened by the heat of a forest fire or of an exceptionally hot season.

The Scots fir, Pinus sylvestris (Fig. 31), called _Pin de Genève_ by the French, has a very wide range. It extends eastward and northward from the Sierra Nevada, in Spain, through Europe and Russian Asia; its northern limit approaches the Arctic circle, its southern limit is formed by the great mountain chains of the Alps, Caucasus, and Altai range of Asia. The beautiful blue-green colour of its needles, the fine red-brown tint of its trunk and branches, and the graceful spread of its foliage high up on a few great, unequally-grown branches springing from its tall, bare trunk, are amongst the most picturesque features of English landscape. In the southern counties "clumps" of a dozen or score of these graceful trees are often to be seen on some isolated hilltop in the moorlands, and are associated with poetic tradition and ancient superstition. In the North of Britain they are more frequent as forest. The Scots fir is the only pine tree really native in our land. It is distinguished from several other species of Pinus by having the leaves or needles in bundles of two, and having relatively small oblong cones (2 to 3 inches long) which are borne near the ends of the branches (Fig. 31). The constituent scales of the cone are only slightly thickened, and the surface knob has no prickle. There are two of the common pine trees of the Mediterranean coast (the Riviera and elsewhere), namely, the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) and the so-called Corsican or Austrian pine (Pinus Laricio), which agree in the above-given points with the Scots fir, and are, in fact, difficult to distinguish from it, except by general shape, mode of growth, and the colour of the leaves and stem. The needles of the Scots fir are 1½ to 3 inches long, those of P. halepensis 2½ to 3½ inches, and those of P. Laricio 4 to 6 inches long. The Pyrenæan or Calabrian pine is closely similar to these.

A very important and abundant pine on the Mediterranean and Biscay coast of France is the Pinaster (Pinus pinaster), often called the "cluster pine," and by the French _Pin des Landes_ and _Pin maritime_ (Fig. 39). It also has its needles, often 6 inches long, in groups of two. It is usually a smaller tree than the others, but in favourable localities attains a height of 80 feet. Its cones are twice as long as those of the Scots fir, often, as at Bournemouth, 4 and even 5 inches long, and its branches are slender in proportion to the trunk, the bark coarse and fissured, and its foliage (as is that of all the two-leaved set except the Scots fir) of a yellowish (not bluish) green. It has been found invaluable in holding sandy land from shifting and breaking up, and is planted for this purpose along the coast of the Landes and in other parts of the world.

A still better-known pine, which, like those already mentioned, has its needles in pairs, is the stone pine (Pinus pinea), called by the French _Pin de parasol_ and by the Italians _Pino a pinocchi_. This fine tree (usually bigger than the Pinaster) has been largely planted in Italy on account of its picturesque appearance. This is the tree which one sees so often in Turner's landscapes. The needles are 5 to 6 inches long, and the cones are very large and almost spherical, being often 5 inches long and 4 inches in diameter. The cones do not mature until the third year. The scales are very large and solid, which renders it difficult to extract the nut-like seeds, which are roasted and eaten. Hence the name stone-pine. The spreading, parasol-like shape of the stone-pine is characteristic. A few specimens are to be seen in cultivation in this country. In order to distinguish Pinus sylvestris from P. halepensis, laricio, pinaster, and pinea, the deep blue-green colour of the foliage of the first is sufficient, together with the shortness of its needles. To distinguish the others among themselves (except in the case of well-grown typical examples) it is necessary to examine the cones closely, and often when one comes upon these trees they are, on account of the season, devoid of these distinguishing products.

Wide tracts of sandy moorland in the south of England have been in the last century extensively planted with various species of Pinus, and afford the naturalist an interesting opportunity for comparing one with another. At Bournemouth the plantations are chiefly of the Austrian variety of Pinus Laricio,[15] the Scots P. sylvestris, and the Mediterranean Pinaster. The latter is especially luxuriant there. Here and there I have found other species at Bournemouth. A remarkable one with three needles in a group is the Californian Pinus insignis (Fig. 40), known as the Monterey pine. It has a very large cone which is curiously one-sided in growth, the seed-scales on the side facing away from the supporting branch being larger than those on the opposite face. Another interesting species to be met with there is the Pinus muricata, also a Californian sea-coast species. The cones of this species are about 3 inches long and half that in breadth. In all the species of Pinus the outer end of the scales which build up the cone is swollen and squeezed compactly by its fellows, forming a hard shield-like surface of a lozenge shape, in the middle of which is a knob or process (see Figs. 31, 39, and 40). Usually this is short and not very sharp, but in Pinus muricata the cone is very hard and solid and the knob is elongated into a spine of nearly one-third of an inch long (Fig. 41). Theses pines are so hard and sharp that they render it impossible to grasp the cone with the hand in order to pluck it. The cones remain on the tree for fifteen years or more, and may be seen in close-set clusters surrounding quite old branches. The cones of Pinus rigida--one of the American pitch-pines--are similarly protected by spines. Pinus rigida is easily distinguished by its having its needles in bundles of three from Pinus muricata, which has the more usual arrangement of a pair of needles to each bundle. The Douglas fir is also to be found here and there in the gardens and parks of Bournemouth. Its cones (Fig. 42) are remarkable for their beautiful purple and pale green tints when young, and for the long trifid bract on the outside of each scale, similar to but larger than those on the cone-scales of the silver fir, Abies pectinata (Fig. 35), and not bent backwards as they are.

[15] A fine specimen is growing near the main entrance of Kew Gardens.

There are two pine trees of the genus Pinus which one comes across, either in English plantations or on the Continent, and are readily distinguished by having the leaves (needles) in bundles of five. The first of these is the Arolla pine--Pinus Cembra (French, _cembrot_)--a pine tree much like the Scots fir in general appearance, but distinguishable from it, not only by the tufts of five needles in a bunch instead of two, but also by the erect cones which are nearly as broad as long (3 in. by 2 in.). It is essentially a Siberian tree, and grows in Europe only on the Carpathian Mountains and the Alps. I have seen it in the neighbourhood of the Rhone Valley in Switzerland, but it is yearly becoming rarer owing to its destruction at the great heights (4000 to 6000 feet), where it formerly flourished, by the herdsmen in order to extend the pasturage for their milk industry. The other pine with five leaves in a tuft, which one may often see, is the Weymouth pine--Pinus Strobus. It is a native of the New England States and Canada, where it is known as the white pine, and is greatly valued as a timber tree. It was introduced and planted in England by Lord Weymouth at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and is a very handsome tree, growing to 120 feet in height, with a bluish-green colour of the foliage like that of the Scots fir. The needles are 3 to 4 inches long, and the cones pendulous, 5 to 6 inches long and blunt. Another pine of the five-leaved group is to be seen in gardens in the South of Europe (for instance at Baveno on the Lago Maggiore), where it is introduced from Mexico. This is the Pinus Montezumæ, which has extraordinarily long tufts of needles of a blue-green colour, each needle from 7 to 10 inches long, arranged as radiating or fan-like growths of great beauty and striking appearance. The Bohtan pine of the Himalayas (Pinus excelsa--not to be confused with Picea excelsa, the spruce) is also a five-leaved species. Several specimens of it are flourishing in Kew Gardens.

A few lines must be given to the Araucarianæ, Taxodinæ, and Cupressinæ. The Araucarianæ include, besides the Chilian monkey puzzle, an Australian species, and the New Zealand Dammar pine Agathis, which produces the amber-like Kauri gum. The leaves of the monkey puzzle are like the scales of a spruce cone in shape, and the ordinary branches are like elongated green spruce-cones, whilst the seed-cones have needle-like scales. The next family, the Taxodinæ, are in many respects intermediate in character, between the Abietinæ (true pines, cedars, and firs) and the Cupressinæ (cypresses and junipers). They have very small, lance-shaped leaves, closely packed, so as to overlap one another--as in the celebrated Wellingtonia or American Big-tree--and small cones, with hard, knob-like scales, resembling those of the most woody-coned Pinus, but few in number. The American Big-tree (native on the western slopes of the Californian Sierra Nevada) is named "Sequoia gigantea" by the botanists. It was introduced into England about sixty years ago. The Red-wood, of the Pacific coast of the United States, is another species of Sequoia (S. sempervirens), and it appears that a specimen of it has been measured as reaching 340 feet in height; whilst no living specimen of the S. gigantea has been definitely measured of more than 325 feet in height. There are several other large exotic, pine-like trees, which are placed in the Taxodinæ. The extraordinary and interesting tree called the Japanese umbrella pine (Sciadopitys verticillata) is associated with the Sequoias by some botanists; but it is in important respects unlike any other conifer. It has a very peculiar foliage, namely, rod-like leaflets, twenty to thirty in number, arranged in circlets or whorls like the spokes or ribs of an umbrella. The curious thing is that these are not "leaves," but, according to botanists, are leaf-like shoots or branchlets! It may be seen growing in Kew Gardens, where it was introduced thirty years ago.

The last family of the Coniferæ is the Cupressinæ, so named after the great and beautiful cypress tree, which is said to have given its name to the island of Cyprus, which in turn gives its name to cupreous metal, or copper. The cypress tree similarly gives its name to "coffers" and "coffins" made of its wood, as the Buxus or box-tree has given its name to a "box." The cypress is the Gopher tree of the Hebrews. The family includes many species of junipers (Juniperus) and the American and Japanese Arbor vitæ (Thuya) and its allies. In the common cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) the leaves are singular, small, scale-like growths, which are flattened on to the delicate branchlets which bear them. In other trees of the family both such leaves and also upstanding lancet-like leaves are present. The main character is the small size and globular shape of the cones and the very few swollen scales, more like solid wedges adherent to one another, which build them up. These wedge-like scales are not arranged in whorls, but are opposite to one another on the short axis or stem of the cone. The common juniper (Juniperus communis), the _génévrier_ of the French, grows abundantly on the chalk downs of the South of England, where it appears as a small bush, not exceeding 5 feet in height, but in favourable conditions reaches a height of 20 feet. The cones of the juniper are numerous, and each consists of only three ovuliferous scales, and is only one-fifth of an inch in diameter when ripe, and of a blackish violet colour.

At the close of this compressed survey of the order Coniferæ, let me put the chief forms and groups at which we have looked in a tabular form, thus:

=Order CONIFERÆ:=

_FAMILY_ 1.--ABIETINÆ. SECTION A.--SAPINEÆ (SPRUCES AND SILVER FIRS). _Genus_ 1.--Picea. 2. Tsuga. 3. Pseudotsuga. 4. Abies. SECTION B.--LARICEÆ (LARCHES AND CEDARS). _Genus_ 1.--Larix. 2. Cedrus. SECTION C.--PINEÆ. _Genus_ unic.--Pinus.

_FAMILY_ 2.--ARAUCARIANÆ. _Genus_ 1.--Araucaria. 2. Agathis. 2. Cunninghamia.

_FAMILY_ 3.--TAXODINÆ. _Genus_ 1.--Sequoia. 2 Taxodium. 3. Sciadopitys, etc.

_FAMILY_ 4.--CUPRESSINÆ. _Genus_ 1.--Cupressus. 2. Thuya. 3. Juniperus, etc.