In Herzegovina, according to Beck, the tree grows down the Neretva valley to the Plasa Planina and the southern slope of the Prenj Planina. In Montenegro it is comparatively rare, Pinus leucodermis having been often mistaken for it. It occurs scattered through Albania. In Dalmatia there are peculiar forests of Austrian pine, in which there is a dense undergrowth of evergreen Mediterranean shrubs and Juniperus Oxycedrus; and Beck describes the most remarkable of these, which occur at about 2500 feet elevation, on the peninsula of Sabioncello and the island of Brazza. The greatest altitude in these regions at which the Austrian pine was seen growing by Beck was 5300 feet on the west slope of Mount Dinara in south-western Bosnia, on the Dalmatian frontier.
In Greece, Laricio, probably of the Corsican variety, occurs in the mountains, often forming extensive woods, and Halacsy’ mentions various localities in the provinces of Epirus, Thessaly, Eubœa, Ætolia, Peloponnesus, and in Crete. In Cyprus’ Laricio is only met with on the summit of Troodos and on some crests to the west, at 4000 to 5000 feet altitude, just above the zone of Pinus halepensis, the two species mingling slightly together at the line of junction, as is the case in Corsica. Mr. Madon, who cut down a hundred trees, says that the timber is of no value, on account of the large amount of sapwood in immature trees, until it has reached the age of 250 years. Hartmann,’ who has recently visited Cyprus, gives an elaborate account of the Laricio forest. He states that pure woods of this species are rarely met, as in its lower zone, from 4000 to 4500 feet, it grows mixed with Pinus halepensis; and above this, to the summit of Troodos, it is accompanied by Juniperus fœtidissima. It attains a height of 80 feet and a girth of as much as 16 feet.
In Asia Minor, according to Tchihatcheff,* it grows mixed with silver fir on Olympus in Bithynia at 2700 to 5000 feet altitude, and in the same province, on Mount Samanly, at 1600 to 2100 feet, and in the island of Thasos, where it forms with Juniperus excelsa a wood in the littoral region. He records it near Soma in the mountains of Mysia; in the valley of the Meander in Troas; between Mughla and Eskischer in Caria; in the Antitaurus, where it forms mixed woods with Juniperus excelsa, Abies cilicica, cedar, and oak; and in various localities in Pisidia, Isauria, and Cilicia.
In the Crimea’ it grows on dry, poor, calcareous soil, forming woods on the western slopes of the mountain chain which extends along the coast of the Black Sea. The Crimean pine has been made a distinct variety, pallasiana, but it is probably identical with the Austrian pine.
According to Radde,’ Pinus austriaca, as he terms it, is rare in the Caucasus. Steven discovered it in 1840 in the neighbourhood of Gelentschik; and Kusnezoff has since found it at a place called Wulanskaja, 35 kilometres south-east of Gelentschik, where there is a small open grove with sound trees attaining 2 metres in girth. Radde adds that it grows near the Black Sea at Bulanka. (A.H.)
1 Consp. Fl. Græcæ, iii. 452 (1904).
2 Forests of Cyprus; Parly. Paper, Cyprus, No, 366 of 1881, Encl. No. 2, pp. 28, 34.
3 Mitt. Deutsch. Dendrol. Ges. 1905, Pp. 172.
Asie Mineure, ii. 497 (1860).
6 Antoine, Conif. 6 (1840).
Pflanzenverb. in Kaukasusländern, 169, 184 (1899).
