17. PINUS GERARDIANA
- 1832 P. Gerardiana Wallich ex Lambert, Gen. Pin. ed. 8vo, ii. t. 79.
Spring-shoots glabrous. Leaves from 6 to 10 cm. long, serrulate; stomata dorsal and ventral; resin-ducts external. Scales of the conelet armed with a short spine. Cones from 9 to 15 cm. long, short-pedunculate, ovoid or oblong; apophyses fulvous brown, very thick, with a prominent reflexed or erect protuberance culminating in an umbo on which the spine is more or less persistent; nuts remarkably long, narrow, terete, the shell fragile, the short wing falling with the nut or adhering to the adjacent scale.
A tree of the northwestern Himalayas found on the borders of Cashmere and Thibet and in Kafiristan and north Afghanistan, and so highly prized for its nuts that it is rarely felled for its wood. It grows in dry regions and rarely attains a height of 20 metres. Attempts to cultivate this species, even in the milder parts of Great Britain, have generally failed.
The apophysis of the cone varies much in prominence (figs. 134, 135), but the peculiar seed is invariable and quite unlike that of any other Pine. The general color of the trunk at a distance is silver-gray.
Fig. 133, Cone. Fig. 134, Cone-scale with adhering seed-wing. Fig. 135, Cone-scale of flatter form. Fig. 136, Seed and wing. Fig. 137, Leaf-fascicle and magnified leaf-section.
