V. GERARDIANAE
Seeds with a very short ineffective articulate wing. Leaves in fascicles of 3, serrulate, the sheath deciduous. Bark exfoliating in large scales, leaving parti-colored areas.
These Asiatic Nut Pines are alike in leaf and cortex as well as in the peculiar seed-wing. The last often remains in the cone after the nut falls. The mechanical nature of this adhesion is apparent in P. Gerardiana, where the wing adheres not to its own, but to the adjacent scale. The two species are alike in their leaves but distinct in their cones and seeds.
| Cones smaller, the nut short-ovate | 16. Bungeana. |
| Cones larger, the nut long-cylindrical | 17. Gerardiana. |
16. PINUS BUNGEANA
- 1847 P. Bungeana Zuccarini ex Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 166.
Spring-shoots glabrous, summer-shoots common on fruiting branches of young trees. Leaves from 6 to 10 cm. long, serrulate; stomata dorsal and ventral; resin-ducts external. Conelets subterminal or often pseudolateral, their scales gradually narrowed into a spine. Cones from 5 to 7 cm. long, short-pedunculate, short-ovate; apophyses dull pale nut-brown, elevated along a transverse keel, the dark brown umbo forming a spine with a broad base; seeds with a short loosely attached wing, sometimes remaining in the cone when the short-ovate nut falls.
A tree cultivated about the temples of China and recently found by Wilson growing on the mountains of Hupeh. The earlier parti-colored bark changes to chalky white on old trunks, by which the tree is recognized from a great distance. The stem of the tree is often multiple by the vertical growth of some of the lower branches. It is very hardy and is cultivated in Europe and America, although these cultivated trees are not yet of sufficient age to show the remarkable white trunk.
Fig. 138, Cone and cone-scale with adhering wing. Fig. 139, Seed and wing. Fig. 140, Leaf-fascicle and magnified leaf-section. Fig. 141, Parti-colored bark. Fig. 142, Tree with white trunk.