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Rh noticed in France; and some years later, in 1881, was found in the forest of Wandsburg in Prussia.

Var. argentea, Steven.—Cones and leaves with a silvery tint. Found in the Caucasus.

Var. monophylla, Hodgins.—A shrub, with the needles in each sheath attached to each other throughout their length, apparently forming one needle, but easily separated. Originated at Dunganstown, near Wicklow, about 1830.

Var. microbhylla, von Schwerin.— Needles thin, sharply pointed, only ½ inch long. Originated as a seedling in 1883 at Wendisch-Wilmersdorf.

Var. aurea.'—A low tree of dense habit, with leaves of a golden yellow colour usually in spring, the foliage becoming green in summer.

Var. variegata.—Leaves variegated. This form has arisen several times in cultivation ; but was once found wild in Prussia by Caspary.

Var. pyramidalis.—Fastigiate in habit. Schiibeler says that trees of this kind are common in the forests of Norway and Finland.

Var. pendula, Caspary.,—A weeping form, found in a wood near Tilsit, in East Prussia.

Various dwarf forms are known, as pumila, nana, globosa.

The common pine has an extraordinarily wide distribution, occurring in regions of the most diverse climates and on almost all soils, and in the mountains as well as in the plains. It grows in Eastern Siberia, where the temperature falls to — 40° Fahr., and the period of vegetation hardly lasts for three months; and is met with in Southern Spain, where the summer heat reaches 95° Fahr., and the period of vegetation lasts for nine months of the year. It occurs in dry regions like Provence, where there is little humidity in the air, and in the west of Scotland, where the air is laden with moisture all the year round. It is by preference a tree of siliceous soils, but occurs on almost all geological formations ; and in Scotland, Norway, and Sweden grows on peat-bogs too wet for the spruce to exist on.

The area of distribution includes almost all Europe and the greater part of Northern Asia. The northerly limit, commencing on the north-west coast of Norway at Alten (70° N. lat.), passes through Lapland, south of the Enara lake (68° 50’), and touches Pasvig Fjord on the Arctic Sea at 69° 30’. Extending through the Kola peninsula from Kola bay, it crosses the White Sea at 66° 45’ and in the Petchora territory goes as far north as 67° 15’; and crosses the Ural at about 64°. In Siberia it never reaches quite as far north as the Arctic circle, though it nearly touches it on the Ob and the Yenisei rivers; east of the Lena river it descends to about 64”. It reaches its extreme easterly point (about 150° E. long.) in the Werchojansk Mountains. The eastern limit descends from there through the Stanovoi Mountains

1 There is a useful note on the propagation of this variety in Gard. Chron. xi. 405 (1892).

2 Schrift. Phys. Oekonom. Gesell. Königsberg, 1866, p. 49, fig. 1.