# The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland/Volume 2/Pinus Laricio

The Trees of Great Britain & Ireland was a multi-volume work, privately published between 1906 and 1913. The second volume was published 1907. The plates of this volume are part of the volume
PINUS LARICIO
    Pinus Laricio, Poiret, Lamarck's Dict. v. 339 (1804); Lambert, Genus Pinus, i. ii, t. 4 (1832); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2200 (1838); Forbes, Pinetum Woburnense, 23 (1839); Parlatore, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 386 (1868); Masters, Gard. Chron. xx. 785, fig. 142 (1883); xxi. 18, fig. 1 (1884); iv. 692 (1888), Journ. Linn, Soc. (Bot.) xxxv. 624 (1904); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 226 (1887); Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 596 (1897); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferæ, 338 (1900).
    Pinus nigra, Arnold, Reise nach Mariazell, 8 (1785); Kirchner, Lebengesch. Blutenpfl. Mitteleuropas, 231 (1906).
    Pinus austriaca, Höss, Flora, viii. Beiträge, 113 (1825); Gard. Chron. ix. 275, figs. 49, 50 (1878).
    Pinus nigricans, Host, in Sauter, Versuch Geog. Bolan. Schilderung Umgeb. Wiens, 23 (1826).
    Pinus taurica, Loddiges, Cat. (1836).
    Pinus caramanica, Bosc. ex Loudon, op. cit. 2201 (1838).
    Pinus dalmatica, Visiani, Fl. Dalmat. i. 199 (1842).
    Pinus monspeliensis, Salzmann, ex Dunal, Mém. Acad. Montpell. ii. 82 (1851).
    Pinus Salzmanni, Dunal, loc. cit.
    Pinus calabrica, cebennensis, and poiretiana, Hort, ex Gordon, Pinetum, 168 (1858).
    Pinus Fenzleyi, Carrière, Rev. Hort., 1864, p. 259.
    Pinus Fenzlii, Antoine et Kotschy, ex Carrière, Conif. 496 (1867).
    Pinus pindica, Formanek, Verhandl. Naturf. Verein Brünn, xxxiv. 20 (1896); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxxi. 302, figs. 95, 96 (1902).
A species very variable in habit, dimensions, and foliage, comprising several different geographical forms, which under cultivation preserve in a great measure their peculiarities. The following description is drawn up from wild specimens of the Corsican tree, which is the finest form.
A tree attaining 150 feet in height and 20 feet in girth. Bark on old trees about an inch thick, deeply fissuring into irregular longitudinal plates, which exfoliate in small rounded scales, leaving exposed pale brown, slight oval depressions where they fall off. Buds $^1$⁄$_2$ to 1 inch long, elongated, abruptly contracted to an acuminate apex, light brown in colour, tinged with white, the lowermost scales loose and reflected, the uppermost bound together by white resin. Branchlets stout, glabrous, brown in colour; leaf-bases very prominent, keeled, and imbricated, persisting for several years on the older leafless branchlets.
Leaves, in pairs, densely covering the whole branchlet on barren shoots, forming an apical cup-like tuft above, directed upwards and forwards below; deciduous in the fourth or fifth year; stout, 4 to 6 inches long, about $^1$⁄$_{16}$ inch wide, straight or curved, often twisted, serrulate, ending in a short callous point; semi-terete in section, with ​twelve lines of stomata on the convex surface and eight lines on the flat surface; resin canals median, surrounded by stereome cells, meristele elliptic, fibro-vascular bundle branched, Basal sheath about ½ inch long, brown near the base, whitish above, becoming on old leaves short, lacerated, and blackish.
Male flowers clustered, three to ten or more in number, on the lower half of the branchlet of the first year, which grows beyond the inflorescence and bears leaves above; later, when the flowers drop off, these fertile branches appear to be bare of leaves in their lower half. The male flowers are upright, yellow, cylindric, stalked, about an inch long; connective crest large, purplish, finely toothed. Female flowers single or two to three at the top of the young branchlets, very shortly stalked and bright red in colour, remaining as small (½ inch diameter) globular cones till the beginning of the second year.
Cones ripe at the end of the second year, solitary or in pairs or threes, subterminal, sessile; variously directed, upwards, horizontally, or even curving downwards; shining brown; ovoid-conic, 2 to 3 inches long by an inch in diameter, straight or curved, symmetrical, ending in a narrow apex. The cones open in the spring or summer of the third year and soon after the escape of the seeds fall off. Scales about an inch long; concealed part thin, dark reddish brown below and light brown above; apophysis or visible part shining yellowish brown, raised, rounded at the upper margin, with a transverse keel, curved on each side of the central umbo, which is reddish brown and bears a minute or obsolete prickle. Seeds greyish or brownish, more or less mottled, about $^1$⁄$_6$ inch long; wing three or four times as long, striated light brown, straight on one side and gently curved on the other, about 4 inch wide at the broadest part, which is at the middle or just belowit. Seedling with six or seven cotyledons.
The different geographical forms may be arranged as follows:—
1. Var. corsicana, Loudon, loc. cit. (var. poiretiana, Antoine, Conif. 6: 1840), Corsican Pine. Occurs in south-east Spain, Corsica, southern Italy, Greece, and Crete.
A tall tree with straight stem and slender branches. Leaves light green in colour, not extremely dense upon the branchlets, the whole aspect of the foliage being lighter in colour and sparser in quantity than in the Austrian pine. Buds not very resinous. Cones usually without radiating cracks on the apophyses.
Var. calabrica, Loudon, loc. cit., is scarcely distinguishable. As seen under cultivation at Les Barres, it has perhaps slightly denser foliage than the Corsican variety growing beside it.
2. Var. austriaca, Loudon, loc. cit. (Pinus nigra, Arnold; Pinus austriaca, Höss; Pinus nigricans, Host; Pinus Laricio, var. nigricans, Parlatore). Austrian Pine. Austria, Balkan Peninsula, Crimea, Caucasus, Asia Minor.
Shorter tree, with numerous stout branches. Leaves dark green in colour, extremely dense upon the branchlets, giving the whole tree a dense dark crown of foliage. Buds resinous, whitish, stouter than in the Corsican pine. Cones usually showing radiating cracks in the apophyses.
Var. pallasiana, Endlicher, Syn. Conif. (Pinus pallasiana, Loudon, op. cit. 2206). ​This name is given in England to trees with numerous stout branches, the lowermost of which ascend parallel to the trunk; but in foliage scarcely different from the Austrian pine. The cones are usually larger than in that variety and have the radiating cracks strongly marked. This form is supposed to have come from the Crimea. The Laricio which occurs in the Crimea, Asia Minor, and the Caucasus appears, however, to be identical with the Austrian form.
Var. caramanica, Loudon, loc. cit. (var. Karamana, Masters, Gard. Chron. 1884, xxi. 480, fig. 91). This is the Austrian pine as regards the foliage; but producing extraordinarily large cones, up to four inches or more in length. It is supposed to be identical with a form introduced into Paris by Olivier, who sent seeds in 1798 from Caramania in Asia Minor; but is perhaps only a mere sport of the common Austrian pine. The only specimens known to us are two trees at Syon, grown on the lawn west of the mansion; and one of these measured, in 1903, 72 feet by 8 feet 6 inches.
3. Var. tenuifolia, Parlatore, loc. cit. (vars. pyrenaiaca et cebennensis, Grenier et Godron, Flore de France, iii. 153 (1856). Pinus monspeliensis, Salzmann. Pinus Salzmanni, Dunal). Pyrenean Pine. Cevennes and Pyrenees.
Small trees, often stunted in growth, with remarkably slender leaves, only half the thickness of the other forms. Young branchlets orange-coloured. Cones smaller than in the Corsican variety. Owing to its slow growth, the annual shoots are very short, and the older branchlets remain slender and bare of leaves fora great distance behind the short tuft of leaves at their extremities.
Pinus leucodermis, Antoine, treated by us as a distinct species, is considered by many authorities to be only an alpine form of Laricio; and there appear to be similar forms occurring in high regions elsewhere, as Pinus Fenzlii, Carrière, which resembles P. leucodermis in having short leaves, almost appressed together in the bundles.
Pinus pindica, Formanek, reported as growing in the Pindus and the Thessalian Olympus, is not recognised by Halacsy; and is probably only a slightly aberrant form of the ordinary Corsican variety. It has been fully described and figured in Gardeners' Chronicle, loc. cit., by Dr. Masters.
Horticultural varieties of Laricio are few and unimportant. Beissner mentions pendulous, variegated, and dwarf forms. A golden variety of the Austrian pine, said to have been raised or introduced by Mr. Mongredien of the Heatherside Nursery, has the leaves, especially those on young growths, tipped with gold. Ilsemann saw a tree, in which the leaves were beautifully variegated with yellow, growing wild in a forest in Hungary. A peculiar form of Austrian pine with stout falcate leaves has been observed at Breslau.
Introduction
According to Loudon, the Corsican variety was introduced into England, as long ago as 1759, under the name Pinus sylvestris, € maritima, which was adopted by Aiton. In France, the tree in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris was planted in 1774; but the date of introduction of the first seed is probably earlier. The Austrian pine was introduced in 1835 by Lawson of Edinburgh. Var. pallasiana was first raised by Messrs. Lee and Kennedy, Hammersmith, from seeds sent to them about the year 1790 from the Crimea by Professor Pallas. Captain Cook imported seed in 1834 from the Sierra de Segura in the south of Spain; but the plants raised were probably indistinguishable from the ordinary Corsican variety; and there is no record of the introduction of the Pyrenean or Cevennes variety, of which we know of no large trees in this country.
Distribution
The species has a widespread distribution, extending westwards from Spain into the Cevennes in France, finding its northerly limit in Austria, and descending into Corsica, Italy, Sicily, the Balkan peninsula, Greece, Crete, and Cyprus, it reappears in the Crimea and in Asia Minor, and reaches its most easterly point in the Caucasus.
In Spain, a form considered by Willkomm to be identical with the Corsican variety occurs scattered through the plateaux and mountains of the south-eastern and central provinces, at altitudes between 1000 and 3500 feet. The largest forests occur in the Serrania de Cuenca, and in the sierras of Segura and Cazorla, the most southerly point reached being in the last-named mountain in N. lat. 37° 40' and W. long. 3°.
Pyrenean Laricio.—The form which occurs in the Pyrenees and the Cevennes is remarkable for its stunted growth and slender leaves. It grows on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees in the province of Aragon, not far from Venasque, between the rivers Esera and Cinca. From this locality, which was visited by Mr. H.L. de Vilmorin in his investigations of the Pyrenean Laricio, seeds were regularly sent to Paris for many years early in the 19th century, by M. Boileau, pharmacist at Bagnéres-de-Luchon.
M. Calas, who has written an elaborate memoir on this variety, accompanied by a map of its distribution and numerous illustrations of the forests reproduced from photographs, discovered it in 1890 on the north side of the Pyrenees near Prades. Here it covers a scattered area of about 3600 acres in the hills south of the river Têt and north of Mount Canigou, the district being called Conflent; and grows on glacial clay at elevations between 1880 and 3300 feet. In most places the original forest has been ruined by sheep-grazing and fires, and usually only small isolated ​groups of trees are to be seen, in the ravines and on the precipices. There are, however, two woods of considerable extent; and one of these, situated in the basin of the stream of Masos, is considered by M. Calas to be the finest which he has seen, as regards the density, regularity, size, and vigour of the trees, which are, however, only about 80 to go years old. The best trees in the district are 50 to 60 feet high by 3 to 4 feet in girth.
In the Cevennes, this variety occurs in three localities. In Herault, near SaintGuilhem-le-Désert, it covers, between 1700 and 2300 feet elevation, about 2400 acres, of which 1900 have lately been purchased by the Government. The soil is dolomite limestone and is extremely poor and shallow; and the trees growing either on southern arid slopes or on wind-swept plateaux are in a worse condition than elsewhere. They usually have twisted stems and average 15 feet in height; attaining at their best 30 feet high by 3 feet in girth.
Another locality occurs north of Bessèges, in the valley of the river Gagnières, which forms the boundary line between the departments of Gard and Ardèche. The tree grows here at 650 to 1100 feet elevation on siliceous soil, and covers a scattered area of 2500 acres, half of which belongs to the State. It often attains, on northern slopes and on slightly better soil than usual, 60 feet high by 4 feet in girth. This appears to be the only locality where the tree is regularly felled, the timber being sold for pit-props. The maritime pine has been planted in the district in the open spaces caused by forest fires, and though slightly faster in growth than the native Laricio, has proved to be a poorer tree, on account of the inferior quality of its timber.
M. Fabre discovered in 1897 a third locality in the Cevennes, at the Col d'Uglas, eight miles west of Alais in Gard. The area is only 250 acres; but is interesting, on account of Pinus sylvestris growing wild in company with Laricio in the upper part of the forest.
The Pyrenean pine has been planted in a few localities in Ardèche, Herault, Aude, and Pyrénees Orientales; and has done slightly better than the Austrian pine tried with it. Calas considers it to be a useful tree, on account of its capability of growing on the worst possible soils; and is of opinion that its meagre growth in the wild state is entirely dependent on the poor conditions of soil and climate to which it is subjected.
Corsican Pine.—This species is widely spread in Corsica in the great mountain range and its ramifications, which occupy the centre of the island. On northern slopes it grows between 2700 and 5500 feet elevation, the lower margin of the forest being often contiguous with dense woods of Quercus Ilex or with scattered groves of Quercus lanuginosa. On southern sunny slopes it only descends to 3700 feet, the zone below that altitude being usually occupied by Pinus Pinaster, the two species mingling slightly at the line of junction. The forests of Laricio, often of great extent, belong almost entirely to the State and to the Communes, and are all treated by the selection ​method. The pine usually occurs pure; but in the ravines small and unimportant groups of silver fir are often seen, and the edges of the streams are bordered in many places by Alnus cordifolia. The beech in Corsica attains as high an elevation as Laricio, and in some cases the two species are mixed, and a struggle occurs for predominance. Birch is occasionally a component of the pine forest, but is comparatively rare. The soil on which Laricio grows is usually extremely poor, consisting of debris of granite rocks, and contains very little humus or decayed vegetable matter.
The following observations which were taken in 1906, at 3200 feet altitude, in the midst of the Laricio forest at Vizzavona, show the climate in which the tree thrives:—
Snow and low but not extreme temperatures are common during nearly six months of the year, from November to the beginning of May. The sky is generally clouded more or less completely during a greater part of the year; a clear blue sky only being recorded on 77 days out of the whole year.
Plate 113.
CORSICAN PINE in CORSICA (Valdoniello, Henry)
Plate 114.
CORSICAN PINE in CORSICA (André)
In this forest the presence of a considerable number of diseased trees is probably explained by the fact that some twenty years previously most of the large trees had been tapped for resin, an operation which was not justified by its financial results, and which exposed the trees to the attacks of fungi. In many parts of the Valdoniello forest, as in parcelle F, the trees are very tall, and stand very close together, and have beautifully clean stems, showing that the tree bears crowding without injury. The foliage of the trees in Corsica struck me as being denser than is the case usually in isolated trees growing in England; and I agree with Prof. Fliche that the canopy of Laricio is considerably denser than that of the Scots pine, and as a corollary that plantations should not be over-thinned. In Corsica, as only trees of large size are saleable, no thinning operations are ever attempted.
The railway passes through another fine forest, that of Vizzavona, which is about 3400 acres in extent. The trees here are as a rule younger than those at Valdoniello, and in many parts of the forest are mixed with beech, between 3000 and 4000 feet. In one place it was evident that, owing to an excessive felling of Laricio several years ago, the young forest coming up will consist almost entirely of beech. In pure stands of young but tall pines there is usually a slight undergrowth of beech and holly. Near the forester's house I measured a large tree, 145 feet high by 12 feet 3 inches in girth, which was growing at 3200 feet altitude.
With regard to the size attained by Laricio in Corsica, a tree in the forest of Pietropiano with a short stem measured 23 feet in girth. In the forest of Marmano trees have been felled which were clean in the stem to 115 feet, and yielded 950 cubic feet of dressed and squared logs. At Aitone there is a fine forest of Laricio which I was unable to visit from Valdoniello, as the pass across the mountain was impassable owing to deep snow. I was informed that the forest of Asco has been ​practically untouched by the axe, and contains many very old trees of peculiar habit.
The Laricio grows with extreme slowness in the mountains of Corsica, trees 40 inches in diameter averaging about 360 years old, and those over 5 feet in diameter are often as much as 700 years.
The timber of young trees is valueless in Corsica, as it contains practically only sapwood, which rapidly decays on exposure to the air. The sapwood is white in colour, and always considerable in thickness, varying on an average from 8 inches in young trees (77 years old) to 2 to 3 inches in old trees (250 years old and upwards), The heartwood, which is reddish brown, only develops in quantity when the trees attain an advanced age, exceptionally at 120 to 150 years, usually at 300 years. At the latter age the trees average 3 feet in diameter, and are considered to be mature and at the most profitable period for felling. Most of the timber is exported in the form of logs to Italy, where it is much esteemed, and is used for shipbuilding purposes generally. The logs are squared in the forest, all the sapwood being chipped off except a little at the four corners. Saleable logs must be at least 23 feet in length, and have a minimum section at the small end of 1 square foot. They fetch at Bastia, after a long haulage by road and railway, 36 to 4o francs per cubic metre, or about rod. to 11d. per cubic foot. A small proportion of the timber in the forests is cut up into planks and joists for local use. The timber is very strong but heavy, and often contains a great deal of resin; when of the first quality it is considered to be as good as American pitch pine. It is very seldom used in France, and the reasons for this are not very clear.
I could obtain no information as to the collection of the seed of Laricio in Corsica, though I made inquiries when visiting the forests and also at the Conservator's office in Ajaccio. Mr. M.L. de Vilmorin, however, kindly informs me in a letter that the annual collection amounts to about three or four tons, of which his firm disposes of about one-half. The main localities for collecting are near Corte and Calacuccia, and at Vivario, which is not far from Vizzavona. The cones are put in the ovens which the villagers use for drying chestnuts, and as the amount of heat is not regulated with any precision, the seed is often over-heated. Though the crop of cones in the forest varies very much in different years, there has been no difficulty so far in procuring always a quantity of seed sufficient to meet the demand.
In Sardinia the Corsican pine is recorded from only one locality, the valley of the Flumini Maggiore, where it was collected by Moris.
CaLabrian Pine.—In Sicily the Corsican pine is common, according to Schouw, on Mount Etna, where it forms woods between 4000 and 6000 feet. It is, however, in Calabria, in Sila and Aspromonte, that Laricio occurs in abundance, and there is little doubt that the tree here is identical with that of Corsica. Schouw, who compared specimens from the botanical garden at Naples with the large Corsican pine growing in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, is convinced of their absolute identity. Longo, who has recently written an article on the flora ​of Calabria, gives five plates, reproductions from photographs, of the Calabrian forests, and a plate showing the variation in the cones; but he has added little to our knowledge of these interesting forests in his short description of them. He states that the finest one is the State forest of Gallipano. (A.H.)
As I could find no account of this tree in its native country, and it was then little known in England; from the information I received from Signor Siemoni, chief of the Forest Department at Rome, I visited Cosenza, a town in Calabria, in April 1903. Here I was kindly received by Signor Carlo Pagliano, Inspector of Forests, who directed me to a village called Spezzano Grande, two hours' drive from Cosenza, from where I rode with Signor D. Greco, the sub-inspector, to the Sila Mountains, on which the largest forests of this tree now exist. The snow was still lying on the pass at about 4800 feet, but on the plateau beyond this it had melted except in shaded places. The forest is composed mainly of pine, here called Pino della Sila, Pino Rosso, or Pino Butello, mixed with beech in some places; but the forest has been considerably diminished by felling in former times, when the dockyards of Naples drew a large part of their timber from this district. The inspector told me that the only place he knew of where virgin forest of this tree still remained, was on a mountain called Femina Morte in the forest of Carigleone, in the district of Cattanzaro, 60 to 70 kilometres south-east of Cosenza. The average size of the trees which | saw being cut for the sawmill was not above 80 to 90 feet by 6 to 8 feet in girth, and smaller where they grew densely. These trees were 80 to go years old, and the heartwood, 10 inches in diameter, was reddish. In places where fire and cattle had not destroyed them, the natural reproduction was very good, and the seedlings when once established were making 2 to 3 feet of growth every year. The trees grew best in a south aspect on a soil which appeared to be decomposed granite, and, as far as I could learn, there is no limestone in this district. On my way back I visited Potenza in the Basilicata, whence, according to M. de Vilmorin's information, the seeds of the tree originally were introduced; but if the tree ever existed in the district, I could hear nothing of it.
Austrian Pine.—The Austrian pine has been the subject of a monograph by Prof. A. von Seckendorff which gives very elaborate details of its literature, economy, and distribution in Austria, with maps and illustrations of remarkable trees in various places, which should be consulted by those who wish to know more than the brief résumé which I give. It occurs as a wild tree abundantly only in Lower Austria in an area extending from Médling, near Vienna, south to near Pitten and south-west to Reichenrau, especially on the Alpine chalk formation, and attains an elevation of about 4ooo feet. It attains a very great age, the rings of one felled near Stixenstein showing no less than 584 years, though the tree was only 65 feet high and about 6 feet in girth. In very rocky situations it grows so slowly that a tree near Mehadia was 270 years old, with a trunk only 8 feet high and about a foot in girth at the base.
Among the trees most remarkable for size may be mentioned a splendid tree at Vostenhofer (fig. ii. of Seckendorff) which is about 75 feet high and 21 feet in girth. ​It is divided into 4 stems near the ground and has a diameter of branches of about 25 yards. A tree called the Broad Pine at Mödling, near Vienna (fig. iii.), has an umbrella shape, very unusual in this species. It is only about 35 feet high but is no less than 60 feet broad. A tree called the Cross or Picture Pine in the Grossen Föhrenwalde (fig. v.) is considered the finest tree there. It measures about 65 feet high, of which two-thirds are clean trunk, and is 9 to 10 feet in girth at about 9 feet from the ground. The tallest specimen which is mentioned is not much over go feet, very much less than those I saw in Bosnia, some of which were considerably over 100 feet and probably over 120 feet, with clean stems to two-thirds of their height.
On good ground, however, in Austria this pine forms very fine timber; an example (shown on fig. viii.) at Gutenstein, near Zellenbach, is said to be 280 years old with an average height of 30 metres. Another of the same age at Fahrafelde is so like the growth of the tree in Bosnia that the photograph illustrating it (fig. ix.) shows the best form of this tree very well.
A hybrid between this tree and Pinus sylvestris was described by Reichhardt as growing in the Forest of Merkenstein. (H.J.E.)
In Hungary, according to Pax, the Austrian pine is only found at Mehadia on the lower Danube, where there are woods on dry stony mountain slopes. He noticed it, however, as a mere shrub at Talmacsel in the valley of the river Alt. In Styria its occurrence as a wild tree is doubtful. In Carinthia there are limited areas of this species on calcareous soil on the southern slopes of the Dobratsch. It is also recorded from Istria, Carniola, Croatia, and the island of Cherso. Ascherson mentions one locality in Galicia. In Bulgaria it grows in several localities in the Rilo-Dagh, and in the Rhodope Mountains above Stanimaka.
An excellent account of the distribution and forest conditions of this species in the western states of the Balkan peninsula is given by Beck. The most extensive forests in this region lie in south-eastern Bosnia and extend across into Servia, in the district of Novibazar. Fine pine forests occur at Semec, on the slopes of the Lim valley, and on the hills between the Lim and Ceatina rivers. Between the middle part of the course of the river Drina in Bosnia and the river Morava in Servia the tree usually grows on palæozoic rocks, though it is occasionally seen on limestone. In Servia the forests of Austrian pine are less extensive, but extend from Ivica to Kapaonik. In middle Bosnia, where the tree is found growing on serpentine, and in western Bosnia, it is not at all common.
Elwes saw the tree growing abundantly in the valley of the Drina, as already mentioned in our account of Picea Omorika, and brought home a quantity of seed from this locality in 1901, which he distributed under the MS. name of Pinus Laricio, var. bosniensis, believing at the time that it was not the same variety as the common Austrian pine; but he now considers that the difference observed is no more than might be caused by a good soil and a more southerly and warmer climate. ​In Herzegovina, according to Beck, the tree grows down the Neretva valley to the Plasa Planina and the southern slope of the Prenj Planina. In Montenegro it is comparatively rare, Pinus leucodermis having been often mistaken for it. It occurs scattered through Albania. In Dalmatia there are peculiar forests of Austrian pine, in which there is a dense undergrowth of evergreen Mediterranean shrubs and Juniperus Oxycedrus; and Beck describes the most remarkable of these, which occur at about 2500 feet elevation, on the peninsula of Sabioncello and the island of Brazza. The greatest altitude in these regions at which the Austrian pine was seen growing by Beck was 5300 feet on the west slope of Mount Dinara in south-western Bosnia, on the Dalmatian frontier.
In Greece, Laricio, probably of the Corsican variety, occurs in the mountains, often forming extensive woods, and Halacsy mentions various localities in the provinces of Epirus, Thessaly, Eubœa, Ætolia, Peloponnesus, and in Crete. In Cyprus Laricio is only met with on the summit of Troodos and on some crests to the west, at 4000 to 5000 feet altitude, just above the zone of Pinus halepensis, the two species mingling slightly together at the line of junction, as is the case in Corsica. Mr. Madon, who cut down a hundred trees, says that the timber is of no value, on account of the large amount of sapwood in immature trees, until it has reached the age of 250 years. Hartmann, who has recently visited Cyprus, gives an elaborate account of the Laricio forest. He states that pure woods of this species are rarely met, as in its lower zone, from 4000 to 4500 feet, it grows mixed with Pinus halepensis; and above this, to the summit of Troodos, it is accompanied by Juniperus fœtidissima. It attains a height of 80 feet and a girth of as much as 16 feet.
In Asia Minor, according to Tchihatcheff, it grows mixed with silver fir on Olympus in Bithynia at 2700 to 5000 feet altitude, and in the same province, on Mount Samanly, at 1600 to 2100 feet, and in the island of Thasos, where it forms with Juniperus excelsa a wood in the littoral region. He records it near Soma in the mountains of Mysia; in the valley of the Meander in Troas; between Mughla and Eskischer in Caria; in the Antitaurus, where it forms mixed woods with Juniperus excelsa, Abies cilicica, cedar, and oak; and in various localities in Pisidia, Isauria, and Cilicia.
In the Crimea it grows on dry, poor, calcareous soil, forming woods on the western slopes of the mountain chain which extends along the coast of the Black Sea. The Crimean pine has been made a distinct variety, pallasiana, but it is probably identical with the Austrian pine.
According to Radde, Pinus austriaca, as he terms it, is rare in the Caucasus. Steven discovered it in 1840 in the neighbourhood of Gelentschik; and Kusnezoff has since found it at a place called Wulanskaja, 35 kilometres south-east of Gelentschik, where there is a small open grove with sound trees attaining 2 metres in girth. Radde adds that it grows near the Black Sea at Bulanka. (A.H.)
Cultivation: Corsican Pine
Of all the conifers introduced into England, of which great expectations have been formed, none except the larch has shown such good results as the Corsican pine, which has proved a hardy and vigorous grower on almost all soils, and in almost all parts of Great Britain and Ireland. It has not, however, been long enough in the country to have established a position in the English timber market, and until it does it is difficult to say much of its economic value in the future. All accounts of this wood for estate purposes, though often used long before it has attained sufficient age to give the best results, agree in saying that though rough and knotty when grown singly, it is at least as good as Scots pine; probably more durable and stronger when used before maturity. Though it does not grow so fast on very barren and stony soils as the Austrian pine, it is far better from a timber point of view, and occupies less space. Its greatest defect is the difficulty of transplanting it when young on account of its very scanty root system, and as this often, indeed usually, entails considerable loss on both nurserymen and planters, the cost of getting a crop of Laricio established is very much higher than in the case of the Scots pine.
I have been most successful in avoiding a high death-rate by purchasing twoyear seedlings with as many roots as possible from French nurseries in the spring, not before the middle of March, planting them at once in nursery rows on as sandy a soil as possible, and transplanting them to their permanent habitation in March or April, two years afterwards. But the plants will not then be large enough for the better class of land, and may require another transplantation before finally going out, by which time they will have cost 40s. to 50s. per 1000, and in some cases much more. The seedling has a very long primary root at first with very little fibre. By cutting this tap-root when the plant is only a year old, without lifting it from its seed-bed, it may be induced to make more roots, but if left unprotected for the first winter on wet or heavy soil a great many of the seedlings will be thrown out of the ground altogether. In my own ground I prefer to sow the seed in boxes, as their growth in the open ground is slow in comparison with what are raised in France. In order to overcome this difficulty some nurserymen adopt the practice of lifting all their one-year seedlings before winter sets in, and laying them in until spring, when they are lined out for two seasons' growth before being again transplanted.
I have on two occasions tried sowing the seed in the field where I wished the trees to grow, but with little success. The seedlings remain so small for the first two or three years that they cannot be seen among the grass, which soon covers them, and though this species seems to suffer less than any tree from being planted among Coarse grass, it takes five or six years before the seedlings become conspicuous, and it will also be found that in some places they are too thick, and in others have entirely failed.
The Corsican pine is distasteful in the young state to hares and rabbits. An experiment to test this was made some years ago at Tortworth Court, where Lord Ducie planted a young Laricio in the centre of a rabbit warren, which, until the ground was covered with snow, the teeming population of the spot did not touch; ​and even then, when starving, after an attempt to consume the young needles of the buds, they abandoned the experiment.
Captain the Hon. R. Coke, a very close observer of trees, sends us the following notes from Holkham:—
"In distinguishing between P. Laricio and P. austriaca, one must apparently be guided rather by the general appearance and habit of the trees, than by any hard and fast rules. Laricio always looks well-bred in comparison with the coarseness of austriaca. Even when the former develops great limbs, coarse in themselves, the more delicate foliage will distinguish it from its Austrian relative. A good instance of this may be seen at Wolterton, where a fine specimen of each are growing side by side.
"Though the curved or twisted leaves are usually considered to mark the Corsican, yet this feature has been noticed in trees thoroughly Austrian in every other respect; moreover, some Corsicans have straight leaves. Sometimes the branches being produced in regular whorls up the stem is considered to be the mark of a Laricio, but all Corsicans do not follow this rule.
"When planting the sandhills at Holkham at various times between 1855 and 1890, Lord Leicester took the precaution of wiring in austriaca against rabbits and omitting to do so in the case of Laricio. This was done because it had been found that the P. Laricio, which were all raised from the seed of the old trees at Holkham introduced from Corsica in the early part of the 19th century, were unharmed by rabbits, which eagerly devoured P. austriaca. At the present time, of the trees growing on the sandhills, namely, P. Laricio, P. austriaca, P. sylvestris, P. maritima, practically the only one which reproduces freely is the Laricio, as the rabbits, though no longer numerous, seem to be able to distinguish this tree from its congeners, and leave it untouched. On the other hand, some trees bought as Laricio from an English nurseryman, which had every appearance of being genuine, were recently planted to fill up gaps in a belt at Holkham, and in this case the rabbits ignored the nurseryman's label, and made short work of the so-called Laricio."
Mr. J.D.B. Whyte, agent to Lord Iveagh, confirms the statement that rabbits will eat Austrian, and will not touch Corsican pines when planted together; but though the gamekeeper says that he has never anywhere seen a Corsican damaged by rabbits, Mr. Whyte does not think that the question has been fully tested at Elveden. This tree and the Austrian pine are sometimes planted in the Eastern counties as belts and hedges, but do not form so dense a shelter, or bear clipping so well as the Scots pine.
The Corsican pine is apparently less liable than some other pines to the ravages of insects and fungi. A specimen, however, sent in July 1905 to Kew by Mr. Wellwood Maxwell of Kirkennan, near Dalbeattie, showed a branch attacked by Peziza Willkommii, and Sir Herbert Maxwell showed me a similar case on a tree at Monreith.
On the sandhills of the Norfolk coast, near Holkham, are a number of Austrian ​and Corsican pines, planted on what appears to be pure drift sea sand, but Colonel Feilden suggested to me that their health and vigour may be due to the presence of lime, produced by sea-shells in the underlying beds. These trees were, as I was told by Mr. Donald Munro, forester to the Earl of Leicester, partly raised from seeds produced by the old trees in the garden at Holkham, and planted thirty to forty years ago, together with Pinus insignis, P. Pinaster, and P. sylvestris, to form a shelter belt and bind the loose drifting sand. Though some of the trees had preserved the peculiar leaf, colour, and habit of the Corsican and Austrian varieties, there were many others which could not be identified with certainty. A great number of seedlings have sprung up on the south or landward side of the hills, of which the largest were twelve to thirteen years old and 9 to 10 feet high; and many smaller ones of various ages were growing freely even in wet spots among tall rushes. Plate 115 shows the appearance of these seedlings. Rabbits and hares do not seem very abundant here, and I saw none of the Corsican seedlings barked, though one or two of the much scarcer Pinasters had suffered.
Mr. Richards, forester to Lord Penrhyn, is enthusiastic as to the merits of this tree, and writes to me that in North Wales it will grow where all other trees fail, that it stands wind better than any other conifer, and if planted in March and April few deaths take place. He grows it from seed collected in March and April and sown in May. He says there are many trees on the Penrhyn estate 80 to 90 feet high, but I did not see any quite so large as this. He considers that the timber is very good, better than that of any conifer he knows.
Captain Rutherford, agent to the Earl of Carnarvon at Highclere, also speaks very well of this tree, and sends me the dimensions of two not over seventy years old, one of which contains 201, the other 150 cubic feet, and a plank which he was good enough to give me certainly bears out his good opinion of the timber. It has pale red heartwood and yellowish sapwood, though it seems somewhat coarser in grain, and inferior to the wood of the Calabrian variety which I brought from Italy.
The Corsican pine has not proved hardy in New England. It may be occasionally seen in the middle States, but there is no evidence, in large or old specimens, that this tree will really become a valuable acquisition for American plantations.
Cultivation: Austrian Pine
Plate 115.
PINUS LARICIO ON SANDHILLS AT HOLKHAM
Though there is no reason why the Austrian pine should not sow itself in Great Britain, as the seeds ripen in hot years freely, yet I have never seen self-sown plants except near Sarsden Park, Oxfordshire, the property of Lord Moreton, and here only two or three young trees have sprung up on the rough limestone close to some old quarries.
The Austrian pine, according to Schübeler, is hardy in Norway as far north as Stenkjaer, at the upper end of the Throndhjem fjord. A tree in the Botanic Garden at Christiania, which Schübeler says was planted in 1842, is over 4o feet high, but was not a fine specimen when I saw it in 1906.
The Austrian pine has been largely planted in the northern United States as an ornamental tree, and in youth is a handsome tree; but it generally succumbs to the attacks of boring insects before it has lost its bushy juvenile habit, and an Austrian pine in the United States more than fifty feet high is exceptional.
An account of Austrian turpentine, which is derived from Pinus Laricio, is given by Georg Schmidt in an inaugural dissertation before the University of Berne in 1903.
Cultivation: Calabrian Pine
The Calabrian variety of Laricio was introduced into France by M. de Vilmorin in 1819–21, and a full account of its development at Les Barres was given in a catalogue of the trees cultivated there, published at Paris in 1878 by the Forest Department. From this it appears that the tree has proved superior to other pines as a forest tree, and is especially recommended for planting in mixture with oak, which it rapidly surpasses in height, but without injuring it, on account of the slight development of its lateral branches. It has attained on this poor sandy soil a considerable size, and the young trees raised from seed grown there have preserved their superiority in the second and third generation. It produces seed abundantly there, but has the same defect as P. Laricio of being difficult to transplant. It is not easy to distinguish from the Corsican variety. M. Maurice de Vilmorin tells ​me that "in nearly every place where this variety has been planted in France, it has proved to be in comparison with true Corsican pines the larger and finer of the two."
In Calabria the cones are gathered in December before they open, and kept till the following July, when they are spread out in the sun, and the seed falls out naturally, not being sown till the year after. I brought back in 1903 a sack of this seed which proved very good, and a large quantity of plants were raised from it by Prof. Fisher at Cooper's Hill, where they grew extremely well; better, as it seemed to me, than the Corsican pine, and much better than they did on my limestone soil. A number of these were sent to Culford, the seat of Earl Cadogan, in Suffolk, where his forester, Mr. Hankins, says that they stood the drought of 1906 very well on sandy soil. So far as I can see at present, the tree is quite hardy, and grows as fast or faster than the Corsican variety. It is equally difficult to transplant. Time alone will prove whether this tree has any economic value in England, but its superiority over the Corsican pine will be, I expect, only on soils deficient in lime, which the latter endures; and on granitic sand, in the warmer parts of England, it would certainly be worth a trial, either as a pure plantation, or, as recommended at Les Barres, in mixture with oak or beech.
A tree reputed to be of the variety calabrica is growing in the Royal Botanic Garden, Belfast, and was 39 feet high by 3 feet in girth in 1905. It is said to be columnar in habit. A tree at Glasnevin, growing on the side of a hill, measured in 1906 41 feet by 4 feet, and is pyramidal in habit, with branches ascending at an angle of 45°. It is reported to have been planted in 1888, when four years old from seed.
Remarkable Trees
Corsican Pine.—One of the oldest, if not the oldest tree in England, stands near the entrance gate of Kew Gardens, and in 1903 measured 86 feet by 9 feet 3 inches. It was figured in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1888, iv. 692, fig. 97, and according to J. Smith was brought to England by Salisbury in 1814, when a seedling only 6 inches high.
In the pleasure ground at Holkham are three large trees which the Earl of Leicester believes to have been brought to England by a relative early in the nineteenth century, but the date of planting is somewhat uncertain. In 1907 they measured 85 feet by 11 feet, 80 feet by 9 feet 11 inches, and 80 feet by 9 feet 4 inches. Plate 116 shows two of these trees.
The tallest I have seen is at Brocketts, Herts, the seat of Lord Mountstephen, which, growing in a sandy soil and sheltered situation, was, when I measured it in 1905, no less than 119 feet by 8 feet 6 inches.
Plate 116.
PINUS LARICIO AT HOLKHAM
Plate 117.
PINUS LARICIO AT ARLEY
Plate 118.
CRIMEAN PINE AT ELVEDEN
Austrian Pine.—Of the Austrian pine we have seen no specimens in England which rival the Corsican in height, though at Wolterton Park, Norfolk, the seat of the Earl of Orford, there are two large trees about 85 by 9½ feet, which show the characteristic difference in habit and in the colour of the leaves very clearly. From Grigor's account of this place in the Eastern Arboretum, p. 114, they seem to have been planted before 1840. Among the largest is a large spreading tree of this type at Nuneham Park, the seat of the Right Honourable L. Harcourt. Another at Canford Manor, Dorset, measured 83 feet by 9 feet; and at Williamstrip Park, on rather heavy soil, which this tree by no means seems to dislike, there is one of nearly the same dimensions, the largest I know in Gloucestershire.
Var. Pallasiana.—The best authentic specimen I know is a fine tree at Elveden, Suffolk, the property of Lord Iveagh. It is a flourishing tree with the foliage and cones of the Austrian variety, and measured when I saw it in 1907 94 feet by 8 feet 3 inches (Plate 118). Prof. A. Newton of Cambridge informs me that this tree was raised from seed sent by his eldest brother General Newton of the Coldstream Guards from Balaclava in 1854. The parent tree stood in a garden, which was used as a cemetery during the early days of the occupation of the Crimea. In the historic gale of 14th November 1854 the tree was blown down, and the graves covered with rubbish, and a cone was sent home in memoriam.
Other noteworthy trees are as follows:—
| At Dropmore | 108 feet by 11 feet 5 inches | fide A. Henry, 1904. |
| At„ Beauport | 85 feet„ by 11 feet„ 5 inches„ | fide„ A. Henry,„ 1904„ |
| At„ Penrhyn | 95 feet„ by 11 feet„ 4 inches„ | fide„ A. Henry,„ 1904„ |
| At„ Smeaton-Hepburn | 64 feet„ by 6 feet„ 5 inches„ | fide„ A. Henry,„ 1905. |
At Chiswick House there is a good-sized tree, remarkable for having an immense growth of the character of what is usually called "witches' broom."
M. Gadeau de Kerville has figured a very fine example of this pine, which was considered to be of the Calabrian variety by M.L. Corbiere (though this identification seems to me somewhat uncertain), which measured in 1894 35 metres (about 110 feet) high and 3.84 metres in girth. This tree is growing at Vatimesnil (Eure) in the park of M. de Vatimesnil, who believes it to have been planted by his ancestor about the year 1780. If this is correct, it is the oldest and probably the largest planted tree of the species either in France or England.
* ↑ The generic description of Pinus will be given in a later part. There is no English name in common use for the whole species. The different forms are well known, as the Corsican, Austrian, and Pyrenean Pines.
* ↑ The oldest name for the species is Pinus nigra, Arnold, which has lately been revived by some German writers. We adopt the name Pinus Laricio, Poiret, as it has been in general use for more than a century. Pinus pallasiana, Lambert, Genus Pinus, i, 13, t. 5 (1832), is impossible to recognise, being supposed by some to be Pinus Laricio and by others to be Pinus Pinaster. Pinus pyrenaiaca, Lapeyrouse, Hist. Pl. Pyrén., Suppl. 146 (1818), points, so far as the locality is concerned, to the Pyrenean variety of Laricio; but the description is doubtful. Mr. H.L. de Vilmorin, who gives a history of this name in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xl. p. lxxvii (1893), considers it to refer to Pinus Brutia; but M. Calas, in his account of the Pin Laricio de Salzmann, p. 22, controverts this opinion, and believes the description to apply to the Pyrenean Laricio.
* ↑ The twisting of the leaves, supposed to be characteristic of the Corsican variety, is an inconstant character.
* ↑ Probably some trees called Pallasiana, on account of their habit, are really of Corsican origin.
* ↑ Consp. Fl. Græcæ, iii. 452 (1904).
* ↑ Nadelholzkunde, 243 (1891). Masters saw at Moser's Nursery, Versailles, in 1903, a dwarf variety of very compact habit with dense bright green foliage: Gard. Chron. xxxiv. 338 (1903).
* ↑ Gard. Chron. xvi. 507 (1881) and ii. 730, 785 (1883).
* ↑ Gartenflora, 1897, p. 643.
* ↑ Baenitz, Gartenflora, 1903, p. 58.
* ↑ Op. cit. 2204, 2206, 2208, 2209. The date for the Corsican pine is not improbable, as Loudon (viii, t. 315) gives a figure of a tree at Kew, which was 85 feet high in 1838.
* ↑ Hort. Kew. iii, 366 (1780).
* ↑ Cf. Durand, in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xl. p. ccxxviii (1893).
* ↑ Ibid. p. lxxvii.
* ↑ Le Pin Laricio de Salzmann, pp. 50, tt. 1–19. Published at Paris by the Minister of Agriculture in 1900.
* ↑ Here this variety was first discovered in France by Salzmann in 1851.
* ↑ First mentioned in 1856 by Grenier and Godron, loc. cit.
* ↑ Parlatore, Fl. Italiana, iv. 53 (1867). Moris's specimens, though without flowers or fruit, are probably Laricio, according to Parlatore.
* ↑ Ann. Sci. Nat., III Ser., iii. 234 (1845).
* ↑ Annali di Botanica, iii, 1–17, tt. 1–6 (1905).
* ↑ Beiträge zur Kenntniss der Schwarzföhre (Vienna, 1881).
* ↑ Verh. Zool. Bot. Ges. Vienna, xxvi. p. 462.
* ↑ Pflanzenverb. in Karpathen, 104 (1808).
* ↑ Syn. Mitteleurop. Flora, i. 213 (1897).
* ↑ Velenovsky, Flora Bulgarica, 518 (1891).
* ↑ Veg. Illyrischen Länder, 139, 226 (1901).
* ↑ Consp. Fl. Græcæ, iii. 452 (1904).
* ↑ Forests of Cyprus; Parly. Paper, Cyprus, No, 366 of 1881, Encl. No. 2, pp. 28, 34.
* ↑ Mitt. Deutsch. Dendrol. Ges. 1905, p. 172.
* ↑ Asie Mineure, ii. 497 (1860).
* ↑ Antoine, Conif. 6 (1840).
* ↑ Pflanzenverb. in Kaukasusländern, 169, 184 (1899).
* ↑ Hutchison, in Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. vii. 55 (1875).
* ↑ Garden and Forest, x. 471 (1897).
* ↑ Journal of Forestry, 1879, p. 165.
* ↑ Garden and Forest, ix. 453 (1896) and x. 470 (1897).
* ↑ Harzbalsam von Pinus Laricio (Bern, 1903).
* ↑ Cf. Pardé, Arb. Nat. de Barres, 61 (1906).
* ↑ Mentioned in Gardeners' Chronicle, 1870, p. 1537, as a prominent sort, distinct from the Caramanian or Corsican varieties.
* ↑ Records of R. Bot. Gardens, Kew, 286.
* ↑ Les vieux arbres de la Normandie, fasc. iii, p. 317, plate ix.