Pine trees are popular. OF late years no class of trees has been so popular with the generality of those who plant for ornament as the Pine tree (or
Pine trees are popular.
OF late years no class of trees has been so popular with the generality of those who plant for ornament as the Pine tree (or Conifera). They are so separated in their structure from other plants as to form a Class rather than an Order, and embrace, when the name is used in its more comprehensive sense, as is now usual, several very distinct types. In past ages in the history of the globe they formed a more predominant feature in the vegetation of all latitudes than at present; and it is probable that if our knowledge of these fossil forms were more complete there would be found to have been even greater variety among them than among those that remain to us, showing them to bridge over the gap between such flowerless plants as the club-mosses, and the ordinary fruit-bearing, or angiospermous, flowering plants, more completely than we can at present demonstrate.
The stems of most Pine trees (or Conifers) branch freely in apparent whorls, having a "racemose" arrangement--so that, especially when the trees are young, they have one main "leader" or primary shoot, which elongates rapidly, and gives the whole tree the outline of an attenuated cone. At a certain age, however, the tree ceases to increase in height; and the last-formed branches lengthening, whilst the lower ones frequently decay, give it a spreading, flat-topped, or parasol-like outline. This is seen to a limited extent in the Yew, the Cedar of Lebanon, and the Sequoia; and in the Scots Fir (Pinus sylvestris) at an advanced age; but is especially characteristic of the Stone Pine of Southern Europe (P. Pinea).The leaves in Conifers are generally of that dark shade of green which characterises evergreens. They are variously arranged, and narrow or even needle-shaped in form; but it is a distinctive peculiarity of the genus Pinus to bear two different kinds of leaves-small membranous scales, and prismatic green needles grouped in twos, threes, or fives on dwarf branches in the axils of these scales.All Conifers have their stamens and ovules in distinct inflorescences, and in the Taxacea these are on separate trees ("dioecious"); but most Araucariacea and all Abietina are "monoecious." Whilst there is seldom a typical cone among the Taxacea, or among the Cupressina, in which the scales are arranged in alternating whorls, the mathematically exact spirals of the cones of the Abietina are very characteristic.Copious showers of pollen are produced from minute staminal scales, many of which are arranged in a flower--that is to say, along an axis which bears no other leaves. In the Abietina each of these scales bears two pollen-sacs; and in Pinus a number of the staminate flowers are collected into a catkin, the apex of which terminates in a cluster of ordinary leaves. Each grain of pollen is furnished with two air-pouches that facilitate its transport by the wind; for, unlike our more showy flowering plants, the Conifers do not rely upon insect agency for the conveyance of the pollen-grains from flower to flower.As is usually the case in such wind-fertilized flowers, the amount of pollen produced is out of all proportion to the number of ovules. Of these there are in the sub-tribe Pinea but two at the base of each scale of the female cone; but as there may be 150 of these scales, this gives a large number of seeds, many of which, however, prove infertile. The genera that constitute this sub-tribe differ in leaf-characters, and especially in their cones; those of the Spruces (Picea) falling off entire; those of the true or Silver Firs (Abies) coming to pieces, so that the scales separate from the axis; and those of the Pines (Pinus) having the tips thickened into a woody, rhomboidal mass, known as the "apophysis" or "tessella."The roots of the Abietinae do not as a rule extend to any great depth; but in the Cluster Pine (Pinus Pinaster) and the Stone Pine the tap-root is exceptionally long. It is not, however, long enough in the latter to prevent the occasionally unequal growth of the head giving the tree a slight cant out of the perpendicular, and sometimes a bend near the base of the stem, produced in its effort to regain the vertical.The fact that none of the Abietina throw up suckers from the roots, or shoot again when cut down, gave rise to the Latin proverbial expression, "Pini in morem exstirpare" ("to destroy like a pine"), for total destruction, and explains a story told by Herodotus. Miltiades, King of the Dolonei, having been taken prisoner by the people of Lampsacus, Croesus King of Lydia threatened the captors that unless they released Miltiades he would cut them down like pine-trees; and the people of Lampsacus thereupon, when they comprehended the full force of the threat, set the King of the Dolonei at liberty.The Pine trees constitute a large genus, comprising more than a hundred species, or about one-third of all known Conifers; and they range geographically throughout the Northern Hemisphere from Borneo and from Mexico (where, on the sides of Popocatapetl, they extend to an altitude of 12,693 feet, the limit of vegetation) to the Arctic Circle. On the Himalayas, Pine woods do not extend above 11,800 feet; but scattered trees are found up to 12,300 feet.The genus is subdivided according to whether there are two leaves on a dwarf shoot, as in the Scots (P. sylvestris), the Corsican (P. Laricio), the Cluster (P. Pinaster), the Stone (P. Pinea), and the Aleppo Pine (P. Lalepensis); or three, as in the Pitch Pines of America; or five, as in the Stone Pine of Central Europe (P. Cembra) and the Weymouth Pine (P. Strobus). Of the first group, the Cluster and Stone Pines have several points in common. In both the needles are long, straight, rigid, and comparatively broad; the cones are large and pointed, and have pyramidal apices in the centres of their rhomboid tessellae; and the buds are woolly and free from resinous exudations, whilst the scales are reflexed. The two species differ, however, in that Pinus Pinaster has, as its name of Cluster Pine indicates, its cones generally in whorls of from three to eight; each cone being not more than two and a half inches wide, and of a brightly polished light-brown; the scales about an inch long and three quarters of an inch broad, and terminating in a hard, sharp point; and the needles from six to twelve inches long; whilst P. Pinea has solitary cones, sometimes four inches wide, of a lighter color, the scales about two inches long, an inch or more in breadth, and terminating in a broad blunt prickle, and the needles from five to eight inches long.The Stone Pine trees may perhaps be a native of China, where it is plentiful, as in the south of Europe it is seldom seen in situations far removed from human habitations. It occurs in the south of France, in Spain, in Greece, and in Barbary; but it is most closely associated in our minds with Italy. The brilliant skies of the landscapes of Claude have their effect frequently heightened by the contrast with its heavy masses of dark foliage. Gilpin is most enthusiastic in its praise:-"After the cedar," he says, "the Stone Pine deserves our notice. It is not indigenous to our soil, but, like the Cedar, it is in some degree naturalized; though in England it is rarely more than a puny, half formed resemblance of the Italian Pine. The soft clime of Italy alone gives birth to the true picturesque Pine. There it always suggests ideas of broken porticos, Ionic pillars, triumphal arches, fragments of old temples, and a variety of classic ruins, which in Italian landscape it commonly adorns. The Stone Pine promises little in its infancy in point of picturesque beauty; it does not, like most of the Fir species, give an early indication of its future form. In its youth it is dwarfish and round-headed, with a short stem, and has rather the shape of a full-grown bush than of an increasing tree. As it grows older it does not soon deposit its formal shape. It is long a bush, though somewhat more irregular, and with a longer stem; but as it attains maturity its picturesque form increases fast. Its lengthening stem assumes commonly an easy sweep.
It seldom, indeed, deviates much from a straight line; but that gentle deviation is very graceful, and, above all other lines, difficult to imitate. If, accidentally, either the stem or any of the larger branches take a larger sweep than usual, that sweep seldom fails to be graceful. It is also among the beauties of the Stone Pine that, as the lateral branches decay, they leave generally stumps which, standing out in various parts of the stem, break the continuity of its lines. The bark is smoother than that of any other tree of the Pine kind, except the Weymouth; though we do not esteem this among its picturesque beauties. Its hue, however, which is warm and reddish, has a good effect; and it obtains a kind of roughness by peeling off in patches. The foliage of the Stone Pine is as beautiful as the stem. Its color is a deep warm green; and its form, instead of breaking into acute angles, like many of the Pine race, is molded into a flowing line by an assemblage of small masses. As age comes on its round clumpish head becomes more flat, spreading itself like a canopy, which is a form equally becoming; and thus we see what beauty may result from a tree with a round head, and without lateral branches, which requires, indeed, a good example to prove. When we look on an Ash or an Elm from which the lateral branches have been stripped, as is the practice in some countries, we are apt to think that no tree with a head placed on a long stem can be beautiful; yet in Nature's hands, which can mould so many forms of beauty, it may easily be effected."In the south of Europe its wood is used for masts and general carpentry; but it is chiefly valued for its large edible seeds, which are used as food wherever the tree grows. They are three-quarters of an inch long without their wings, and about half as broad, and, being entirely free from resin, have a sweet taste, resembling that of the Hazel-nut. In Pliny's time they were preserved in honey, and now they are commonly used at dessert, or in sugarplums, instead of almonds. If not kept in the cone, however, the abundant oil they contain becomes speedily rancid. Besides being much eaten by squirrels, they form the chief food of the Cross-bill, a bird which occasionally visits this country, and whose beak is specially modified for their extraction from the cone.Where this Pine occurs in large groves of fine trees, such as those which were formerly one of the great beauties of the ancient city of Ravenna, the rustling and sighing of the boughs in the wind has often arrested the attention of the poet. Barry Cornwall thus represents the sighing of a giant as"With such noiseAs the rough winds of autumn make when theyPass o'er a forest, and bend down the Pines;"and speaks further of "Funereal Cypress, Yew, and shadowy Pine, dark trees," that"At nightShook from their melancholy branches soundsAnd sighs like death."Besides other allusions to the Pines of Italy "shaking their choral locks," Leigh Hunt specially refers to those of Ravenna in the following lines:-. . . "the Pine, long-haired, and dark, and tall,In lordly right, predominant o'er all.Much they admire that old religious tree,With shaft above the rest up-shooting free,And shaking, when its dark locks feel the wind,Its wealthy fruit with rough mosaic rind."
The stems of most Pine trees (or Conifers) branch freely in apparent whorls, having a "racemose" arrangement--so that, especially when the trees are young, they have one main "leader" or primary shoot, which elongates rapidly, and gives the whole tree the outline of an attenuated cone. At a certain age, however, the tree ceases to increase in height; and the last-formed branches lengthening, whilst the lower ones frequently decay, give it a spreading, flat-topped, or parasol-like outline. This is seen to a limited extent in the Yew, the Cedar of Lebanon, and the Sequoia; and in the Scots Fir (Pinus sylvestris) at an advanced age; but is especially characteristic of the Stone Pine of Southern Europe (P. Pinea).The leaves in Conifers are generally of that dark shade of green which characterises evergreens. They are variously arranged, and narrow or even needle-shaped in form; but it is a distinctive peculiarity of the genus Pinus to bear two different kinds of leaves-small membranous scales, and prismatic green needles grouped in twos, threes, or fives on dwarf branches in the axils of these scales.All Conifers have their stamens and ovules in distinct inflorescences, and in the Taxacea these are on separate trees ("dioecious"); but most Araucariacea and all Abietina are "monoecious." Whilst there is seldom a typical cone among the Taxacea, or among the Cupressina, in which the scales are arranged in alternating whorls, the mathematically exact spirals of the cones of the Abietina are very characteristic.Copious showers of pollen are produced from minute staminal scales, many of which are arranged in a flower--that is to say, along an axis which bears no other leaves. In the Abietina each of these scales bears two pollen-sacs; and in Pinus a number of the staminate flowers are collected into a catkin, the apex of which terminates in a cluster of ordinary leaves. Each grain of pollen is furnished with two air-pouches that facilitate its transport by the wind; for, unlike our more showy flowering plants, the Conifers do not rely upon insect agency for the conveyance of the pollen-grains from flower to flower.As is usually the case in such wind-fertilized flowers, the amount of pollen produced is out of all proportion to the number of ovules. Of these there are in the sub-tribe Pinea but two at the base of each scale of the female cone; but as there may be 150 of these scales, this gives a large number of seeds, many of which, however, prove infertile. The genera that constitute this sub-tribe differ in leaf-characters, and especially in their cones; those of the Spruces (Picea) falling off entire; those of the true or Silver Firs (Abies) coming to pieces, so that the scales separate from the axis; and those of the Pines (Pinus) having the tips thickened into a woody, rhomboidal mass, known as the "apophysis" or "tessella."The roots of the Abietinae do not as a rule extend to any great depth; but in the Cluster Pine (Pinus Pinaster) and the Stone Pine the tap-root is exceptionally long. It is not, however, long enough in the latter to prevent the occasionally unequal growth of the head giving the tree a slight cant out of the perpendicular, and sometimes a bend near the base of the stem, produced in its effort to regain the vertical.The fact that none of the Abietina throw up suckers from the roots, or shoot again when cut down, gave rise to the Latin proverbial expression, "Pini in morem exstirpare" ("to destroy like a pine"), for total destruction, and explains a story told by Herodotus. Miltiades, King of the Dolonei, having been taken prisoner by the people of Lampsacus, Croesus King of Lydia threatened the captors that unless they released Miltiades he would cut them down like pine-trees; and the people of Lampsacus thereupon, when they comprehended the full force of the threat, set the King of the Dolonei at liberty.The Pine trees constitute a large genus, comprising more than a hundred species, or about one-third of all known Conifers; and they range geographically throughout the Northern Hemisphere from Borneo and from Mexico (where, on the sides of Popocatapetl, they extend to an altitude of 12,693 feet, the limit of vegetation) to the Arctic Circle. On the Himalayas, Pine woods do not extend above 11,800 feet; but scattered trees are found up to 12,300 feet.The genus is subdivided according to whether there are two leaves on a dwarf shoot, as in the Scots (P. sylvestris), the Corsican (P. Laricio), the Cluster (P. Pinaster), the Stone (P. Pinea), and the Aleppo Pine (P. Lalepensis); or three, as in the Pitch Pines of America; or five, as in the Stone Pine of Central Europe (P. Cembra) and the Weymouth Pine (P. Strobus). Of the first group, the Cluster and Stone Pines have several points in common. In both the needles are long, straight, rigid, and comparatively broad; the cones are large and pointed, and have pyramidal apices in the centres of their rhomboid tessellae; and the buds are woolly and free from resinous exudations, whilst the scales are reflexed. The two species differ, however, in that Pinus Pinaster has, as its name of Cluster Pine indicates, its cones generally in whorls of from three to eight; each cone being not more than two and a half inches wide, and of a brightly polished light-brown; the scales about an inch long and three quarters of an inch broad, and terminating in a hard, sharp point; and the needles from six to twelve inches long; whilst P. Pinea has solitary cones, sometimes four inches wide, of a lighter color, the scales about two inches long, an inch or more in breadth, and terminating in a broad blunt prickle, and the needles from five to eight inches long.The Stone Pine trees may perhaps be a native of China, where it is plentiful, as in the south of Europe it is seldom seen in situations far removed from human habitations. It occurs in the south of France, in Spain, in Greece, and in Barbary; but it is most closely associated in our minds with Italy. The brilliant skies of the landscapes of Claude have their effect frequently heightened by the contrast with its heavy masses of dark foliage. Gilpin is most enthusiastic in its praise:-"After the cedar," he says, "the Stone Pine deserves our notice. It is not indigenous to our soil, but, like the Cedar, it is in some degree naturalized; though in England it is rarely more than a puny, half formed resemblance of the Italian Pine. The soft clime of Italy alone gives birth to the true picturesque Pine. There it always suggests ideas of broken porticos, Ionic pillars, triumphal arches, fragments of old temples, and a variety of classic ruins, which in Italian landscape it commonly adorns. The Stone Pine promises little in its infancy in point of picturesque beauty; it does not, like most of the Fir species, give an early indication of its future form. In its youth it is dwarfish and round-headed, with a short stem, and has rather the shape of a full-grown bush than of an increasing tree. As it grows older it does not soon deposit its formal shape. It is long a bush, though somewhat more irregular, and with a longer stem; but as it attains maturity its picturesque form increases fast. Its lengthening stem assumes commonly an easy sweep.
It seldom, indeed, deviates much from a straight line; but that gentle deviation is very graceful, and, above all other lines, difficult to imitate. If, accidentally, either the stem or any of the larger branches take a larger sweep than usual, that sweep seldom fails to be graceful. It is also among the beauties of the Stone Pine that, as the lateral branches decay, they leave generally stumps which, standing out in various parts of the stem, break the continuity of its lines. The bark is smoother than that of any other tree of the Pine kind, except the Weymouth; though we do not esteem this among its picturesque beauties. Its hue, however, which is warm and reddish, has a good effect; and it obtains a kind of roughness by peeling off in patches. The foliage of the Stone Pine is as beautiful as the stem. Its color is a deep warm green; and its form, instead of breaking into acute angles, like many of the Pine race, is molded into a flowing line by an assemblage of small masses. As age comes on its round clumpish head becomes more flat, spreading itself like a canopy, which is a form equally becoming; and thus we see what beauty may result from a tree with a round head, and without lateral branches, which requires, indeed, a good example to prove. When we look on an Ash or an Elm from which the lateral branches have been stripped, as is the practice in some countries, we are apt to think that no tree with a head placed on a long stem can be beautiful; yet in Nature's hands, which can mould so many forms of beauty, it may easily be effected."In the south of Europe its wood is used for masts and general carpentry; but it is chiefly valued for its large edible seeds, which are used as food wherever the tree grows. They are three-quarters of an inch long without their wings, and about half as broad, and, being entirely free from resin, have a sweet taste, resembling that of the Hazel-nut. In Pliny's time they were preserved in honey, and now they are commonly used at dessert, or in sugarplums, instead of almonds. If not kept in the cone, however, the abundant oil they contain becomes speedily rancid. Besides being much eaten by squirrels, they form the chief food of the Cross-bill, a bird which occasionally visits this country, and whose beak is specially modified for their extraction from the cone.Where this Pine occurs in large groves of fine trees, such as those which were formerly one of the great beauties of the ancient city of Ravenna, the rustling and sighing of the boughs in the wind has often arrested the attention of the poet. Barry Cornwall thus represents the sighing of a giant as"With such noiseAs the rough winds of autumn make when theyPass o'er a forest, and bend down the Pines;"and speaks further of "Funereal Cypress, Yew, and shadowy Pine, dark trees," that"At nightShook from their melancholy branches soundsAnd sighs like death."Besides other allusions to the Pines of Italy "shaking their choral locks," Leigh Hunt specially refers to those of Ravenna in the following lines:-. . . "the Pine, long-haired, and dark, and tall,In lordly right, predominant o'er all.Much they admire that old religious tree,With shaft above the rest up-shooting free,And shaking, when its dark locks feel the wind,Its wealthy fruit with rough mosaic rind."
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