Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/114

Rh PINE insects lay their eggs among the decaying bark and dead leaves. In England the pine is largely employed as a &quot;nurse&quot; for oak trees, its conical growth when young admirably adapting it for this purpose ; its dense foliage renders it valuable as a shelter tree for protecting land from the wind ; it stands the sea gales better than most conifers, but will not nourish on the shore like some other species. As fuel the wood of the Scotch fir is of value, but it makes too much black smoke to form an agreeable open fire ; the small trunks and cuttings of plantations are employed by the lime-burner. The pine is an important tree in the economy of the northern nations of Europe. In Scandinavia and Russia houses are chiefly constructed of its timber ; and log-huts are made of the smaller trunks, and lined and roofed with the bark. The inner bark is twisted into ropes, and, like that of the spruce, is kiln dried, ground up, and mixed with meal in times of scarcity ; in Kamchatka it is macerated in water, then pounded, and made into a kind of substitute for bread without any admixture of flour. In recent days the fibre of the leaves has been extracted in some quantity and applied to textile purposes under the name of ivaldwolle, both in Germany and Sweden It is prepared by boiling the needles in a solution of soda to remove the resin, which process loosens the fibre and renders its separation easy ; it has some resemblance to coarse wool, and is spun and woven into blankets and garments that are said to be warm and durable ; it is also used for stuffing cushions ; an essential oil, obtained by a previous distillation of the leaves, has medicinal virtues attributed to it by some German practitioners. Large quantities of turpentine are extracted from this pine in Sweden and Russia by removing a strip of bark, terminating below in a deep notch cut in the wood, into which the turpentine runs, and from which it is scooped as it accumulates ; but the product is not equal to that of the silver fir and other species. Tar is prepared largely from P. sylvestris ; it is chiefly obtained from the roots, which, mingled with a few logs, are arranged in a conical or funnel-shaped hollow made on the steep side of a hill or bank ; after filling up, the whole is covered with turf and fired at the top, when the tar exudes slowly and runs into an iron vessel placed below, from the spout of which it is conveyed into barrels. Most of the so-called Stockholm tar is thus prepared, chiefly in the province of Bothnia. Closely allied to the Scotch pine, and perhaps to be regarded as a mere alpine form of that species, is the dwarf P. Pumilio, the &quot; krummholz&quot; or &quot;knieholz&quot; of the Germans, a recumbent bush, generally only a few feet high, but with long zigzag stems, that root occasionally at the knee-like bends where they rest upon the ground. The foliage much resembles that of the Scotch fir, but is shorter, denser, and more rigid ; the cones are smaller but similar in form. Abounding on the higher slopes of the Bavarian and Tyrolese Alps, it is a favourite shelter for the chamois ; the hunters call it the &quot; latschen,&quot; from its recumbent straggling habit. Krummholz oil, valued in Germany as an outward applica tion in rheumatism and for bruises and sprains, is distilled from the young branches, and a fragrant white resin that exudes in some quantity from the buds is used for similar purposes and as a perfume ; under the name of Hungarian balsam it is sold in the towns of Germany, being probably obtained from the Carpathians. The Red Pine of Canada and New England (so called from the colour of its bark), P. resinosa, is a tree of considerable size, some times attaining the dimensions of P. sylvcstris. The somewhat glaucous leaves form dense tufts at the ends of the branches, and are 4 or 5 inches long ; the ovate blunt cones are about half that length. The tree is of quick growth and the wood strong and resinous, but it is less durable than Scotch fir, though much employed in shipbuilding ; according to Emerson, trunks exist in Maine 4 feet in diameter. A sandy soil seems to suit it best, and the quality of the wood probably much depends on its place of growth. Red pines abound in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and the tree is rather widely distributed over the northern parts of the continent ; it rarely forms extensive woods, but grows chiefly in clumps among other trees, at least in its more southern habitats. Nearly allied is P. Banksiana, the Grey or Labrador Pine, some times called the Scrub Pine from its dwarfish habit ; it is the most northerly representative of the genus in America, and is chiefly remarkable for its much recurved and twisted cones, about 2 inches long. The trunks are too small to be of great economic value, but the light wood is used by the natives for their canoes. /&quot;. Laricio, the Corsican Pine, is one of the noblest trees of this group, growing to a height of 100 or even 150 feet, with a straight trunk and branches in regular whorls, forming in large trees a pyramidal head ; the slender leaves, of a dark green tint, are from 4 to 7 inches long ; the cones, either in pairs or several together, project horizontally, and arc of a light brown colour. This pine abounds in Corsica, and is found in more or less abundance in Spain, southern France, Greece, and many Mediterranean countries; it occurs on the higher mountains of Cyprus. The tree is of very rapid growth, but produces good timber, much used in southern dockyards and very durable, though less strong than that of P. sijlvestris ; the heart-wood is of a brownish tint. In southern France it has been planted with success on the drift-sands of the Bay of Biscay, though it does not bear the full force of the sea- blast as well as the pinaster. In England it grows well in sheltered situations and well-drained soils. The Black Pine, P. aastriaca, derives its name from the extreme depth of its foliage tints, the sharp, rigid, rather long leaves of a dark green hue giving a sombre aspect to the tree. The light - coloured, glossy, horizontal cones are generally in pairs, but some times three or four together. The tree is conical when young, but when old forms a spreading head ; it often attains a large size. Southern Austria and the adjacent countries are the natural habitats of this pine; it seems to flourish best on rocky mountain sides, but in England grows well on sandy soils. The timber is valued in its native country, and is said to be durable and to stand exposure to the weather well ; various resinous products are extracted from it. P. pyrcnaica is a handsome species of pyramidal form, attaining a large size on the mountains of northern Spain. The leaves are long and of a light bright green ; the cones are soli tary, oblong, conical, and of a yellow tint. The timber is used in Spanish dockyards, but opinions vary as to its quality. In planta tions its bright foliage, with the orange cones and young shoots, render it an ornamental tree, hardy in southern Britain. Near to the above are P. Pallasiana or maritiina, and P. halcpcnsis, Medi terranean forms chiefly valued for their resinous products ; the former, planted on the loose sands of France, supplies much turpentine and resin. P. Pinaster, the Cluster Pine or Pinaster, is an important species from its vigorous growth in the sand-drifts of the coast, for the purpose of binding which it has been grown more extensively and successfully than any other tree, especially on the dunes of the Bay of Biscay. Growing to a height of from 40 to 70 feet, the deeply-furrowed trunk occasionally reaches a diameter of 3 feet or more at the base, where, like most sand trees, it usually curves upward gradually, a form that enables the long tap-roots to with stand better the strain of the sea gale ; when once established, the tree is rarely overthrown even on the loosest sand. The brandies curve upwards like the stem, with their thick covering of long dark- green leaves, giving a massive rounded outline to the tree ; the ovate cones are from 4 to 6 inches long, of a light shining brown hue, with thick scales terminating in a pyramidal apex ; they are arranged around the branches in the radiating clusters that give name to the tree. The pinaster grows naturally on sandy soils around the Mediterranean from Spain to the Levant. On the drift-sands of France, especially in the Gironde, forests have been formed mainly of this pine ; the seeds, sown at first under proper shelter and protected by a thick growth of broom sown simultaneously, vegetate rapidly in the sea-sand, and the trees thus raised have, by their wind-drifted seed, covered much of the former desert of the Landes with an evergreen wood. These forests of pinaster, apart from the production of timber in a once treeless district, have a great economic value as a source of turpen tine, which is largely obtained from the trees by a process analogous to that employed in its collection from /. sylvestris the resin is yielded from May to the end of September, the cuts being renewed as the supply fails, until the tree is exhausted ; the trunks are then felled and used in the manufacture of charcoal and lamp black; much tar and pitch is also obtained from these pinaster forests. In England the cluster-pine has been largely planted on sandy districts near the sea, and has become naturalized in Purbeck and other wild tracts in the southern counties, but the summer heat is too small to permit of its resinous products acquiring any value ; the soft coarse wood, though perishable in the natural state, has been used for railway sleepers after saturation with creosote or preservative solutions. P. bruttia, the Calabrian Pine, a kindred form, is remarkable for its numerous densely clustered radiating cones ; its wood is considered good in southern Italy. P. Pinea is the Stone-Pine of Italy ; its spreading rounded canopy of light green foliage, supported on a tall and often branch less trunk, forms a striking feature of the landscape in that country, as well as in some other Mediterranean lands. The beautiful