Diversions of a Naturalist

by Sir E. Ray Lankester

Fig. 40.—Female Cone of the Monterey Pine of California (Pinus insignis). Of the natural size, but somewhat larger specimens are frequent. The characteristic three foliage needles in a bunch, in place of two or five distinctive of some other species of Pinus, are shown in the drawing on the left.—(From Veitch's "Manual of Coniferæ.")

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.

Fig. 41.—Female Cone of Pinus muricata, showing the long sharp spines which stand up from the boss or umbo in the centre of the swollen, woody, lozenge-shaped end or "apex" of each seed-scale. Compare these with the un-armed bosses in the centre of each lozenge building up the surface of the cones drawn in Figs. [31], 39, and 40.

Fig. 42.—Female Cone of the Douglas Fir of North-West America (Oregon and Vancouver), Pseudotsuga Douglasii. Of the natural size.—(From Veitch.)

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.