PINUS LARICIO’
- Pinus Laricio,? Poiret, Lamarck’s Dict. v. 339 (1804); Lambert, Genus Pinus, i. ii, t. 4 (1832); Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2200 (1838); Forbes, Pinetum Woburnense, 23 (1839); Parlatore, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 386 (1868); Masters, Gard. Chron. xx. 785, fig. 142 (1883); xxi. 18, fig. 1 (1884); iv. 692 (1888), Journ. Linn, Soc. (Bot.) xxxv. 624 (1904); Willkomm, Forstliche Flora, 226 (1887); Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 596 (1897); Kent, Veitch’s Man. Coniferæ, 338 (1900).
- Pinus nigra, Arnold, Reise nach Mariazell, 8 (1785); Kirchner, Lebengesch. Blutenpfl. Mitteleuropas, 231 (1906).
- Pinus austriaca, Höss, Flora, viii. Beiträge, 113 (1825); Gard. Chron. ix. 275, figs. 49, 50 (1878).
- Pinus nigricans, Host, in Sauter, Versuch Geog. Bolan. Schilderung Umgeb. Wiens, 23 (1826).
- Pinus taurica, Loddiges, Cat. (1836).
- Pinus caramanica, Bosc. ex Loudon, op. cit. 2201 (1838).
- Pinus dalmatica, Visiani, Fl. Dalmat. i. 199 (1842).
- Pinus monspeliensis, Salzmann, ex Dunal, Mém. Acad. Montpell. ii. 82 (1851).
- Pinus Salzmanni, Dunal, loc. cit.
- Pinus calabrica, cebennensis, and poiretiana, Hort, ex Gordon, Pinetum, 168 (1858).
- Pinus Fenzleyi, Carrière, Rev. Hort., 1864, p. 259.
- Pinus Fenzlii, Antoine et Kotschy, ex Carrière, Conif. 496 (1867).
- Pinus pindica, Formanek, Verhandl. Naturf. Verein Brünn, xxxiv. 20 (1896); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxxi. 302, figs. 95, 96 (1902).
A species very variable in habit, dimensions, and foliage, comprising several different geographical forms, which under cultivation preserve in a great measure their peculiarities. The following description is drawn up from wild specimens of the Corsican tree, which is the finest form.
A tree attaining 150 feet in height and 20 feet in girth. Bark on old trees about an inch thick, deeply fissuring into irregular longitudinal plates, which exfoliate in small rounded scales, leaving exposed pale brown, slight oval depressions where they fall off. Buds 1⁄2 to 1 inch long, elongated, abruptly contracted to an acuminate apex, light brown in colour, tinged with white, the lowermost scales loose and reflected, the uppermost bound together by white resin. Branchlets stout, glabrous, brown in colour; leaf-bases very prominent, keeled, and imbricated, persisting for several years on the older leafless branchlets.
Leaves, in pairs, densely covering the whole branchlet on barren shoots, forming an apical cup-like tuft above, directed upwards and forwards below ; deciduous in the fourth or fifth year; stout, 4 to 6 inches long, about 1⁄16 inch wide, straight or curved, often twisted,’ serrulate, ending in a short callous point ; semi-terete in section, with
! The generic description of Pinus will be given in a later part. There is no English name in common use for the
whole species. The different forms are well known, as the Corsican, Austrian, and Pyrenean Pines.
2 The oldest name for the species is Pinus nigra, Arnold, which has lately been revived by some German writers. We
adopt the name Pinus Laricio, Poiret, as it has been in general use for more than a century.
Pinus pallasiana, Lambert, Genus Pinus, i, 13, t. 5 (1832), is impossible to recognise, being supposed by some to be Pinus Laricio and by others to be Pinus Pinaster.
Pinus pyrenaiaca, Lapeyrouse, Hist. Pl. Pyrén., Suppl. 146 (1818), points, so far as the locality is concerned, to the Pyrenean variety of Laricio; but the description is doubtful. Mr. H.L. de Vilmorin, who gives a history of this name in Bull. Soc. Bot. France, xl. p. lxxvii (1893), considers it to refer to Pinus Brutia; but M. Calas, in his account of the Pin Laricio de Salzmann, p. 22, controverts this opinion, and believes the description to apply to the Pyrenean Laricio.
3 The twisting of the leaves, supposed to be characteristic of the Corsican variety, is an inconstant character.
