"to consider that those trees that are so much sought after for shipping, should most delight in the highest mountains, as if they fled from the sea on purpose, and were afraid to descend into the water." Dr. Clarke, however, met with pines of a less timid spirit.

"On all sides of the cataract, close to its fall, and high above it, and far below it, and in the midst of the turbulent flood, tall pines waved their shadowy branches, wet with the rising dews. Some of these trees were actually thriving upon naked rocks, from which the dashing foam of the torrent was spreading in wide sheets of spray

Travellers tell us, that in the large Pine forests in Norway, &c. there are frequent fires, which sometimes spread far. (See Fir.) Some have supposed these fires to have been kindled by lightning, but it is very clearly and simply accounted for by the custom the peasants have of throwing out among the trees the contents of an old pipe, which rekindles in the air, and quickly catches these resinous trees.

66

66 we en

Advancing a mile or two," says Dallaway, tered a grove of Pine and silver fir, and the greater part having been lately burnt, exhibited a very sombre appearance+."

A late poet refers to one of these forest fires :

"As the Norway woodman quells,

In the depth of piny dells,

One light flame among the brakes,
While the boundless forest shakes,

* Clarke's Travels, vol. iii. p. 181.
Dallaway's Constantinople, p. 180.

And its mighty trunks are torn
By the fire thus lowly born:

The spark beneath his feet is dead;
He starts to see the flames it fed
Howling through the darkened sky

With a myriad tongues victoriously."

SHELLEY.

Some of the Pines have been celebrated for their use

in ship-building. Lucan says

"From fair Thessalia's Pegasæan shore,

The first bold pine the daring warriors bore,

And taught the sons of earth wide ocean to explore."

W. Browne writes

Rowe's Lucan, b. vi.

"The pine with whom men through the ocean venture."

Chaucer speaks of

"The sailing firre ;"

Spenser of

“The sailing pine;"

And a little farther on, says

"The firr that weepeth still."

It is curious that in Harte's translation of Statius this distinction is just reversed:

"The advent'rous fir that sails the vast profound,

And pine, fresh bleeding from the odorous wound."

The Scotch Pine, which is most in use for shipping, is as frequently called the Scotch Fir, and all the trees of this genus are, more or less, lachrymose. Other firs,

however, are used in ship-building; indeed most of the trees of this genus.

Sannazaro speaks of "il diritissimo Abete, nato a sostenere pericoli del mare:”—the straight fir tree, formed to sustain the dangers of the sea.

The Pine is particularly noted for its height and straightness. The Faithful Shepherdess, in lamenting the death of her lover, says—

66 My meat shall be what these wild woods afford,
Berries, and chestnuts, plantains, on whose cheeks
The sun sits smiling, and the lofty fruit

Pulled from the fair head of the straight-grown pine."

Again, Perigort says to Amoret

Oh, you are fairer far

Than the chaste blushing morn, or that fair star
That guides the wandering seaman o'er the deep,
Straighter than straightest pine upon the steep
Head of an aged mountain."

“ Here also grew the rougher-rinded pine,
The great Angoan ships' brave ornament,
Whom golden fleece did make an heavenly sign;
Which coveting, with his high top's extent,
To make the mountains touch the stars divine,
Decks all the forest with embellishment."

SPENSER, Virgil's Gnat.

"Nod the cloud-piercing pines their troubled heads."

WORDSWORTH's Sketches in the Alps.

"On thy white altar we

Lavish in fond idolatry,

Herbs and rich flowers such as the summer uses;

Some that in wheaten fields

Lift their red bells amidst the golden grain :

Some that the moist earth yields,

Beneath the shadows of those pine trees high,

Which, branching, shield the far Thessalian plains
From the fierce anger of Apollo's eye;

And some that Delphic swains

Pluck by the silver springs of Castaly."

B. CORNWALL'S Worship of Dian.

These straight dark pines have a grand and imposing appearance in the mountainous situations to which they naturally belong. This is frequently noticed by tra

vellers :

"Tall straight Pines, in rising order, lined the rugged sides, and by their darkening gloom heightened the grandeur of the scene*."

"On looking down, the landscape below was a perfect miniature, to such a height had we attained: the tall pines rising one above another in wild succession under our feet, presented the appearance of a dark-green sea, by the waving of their pliant tops, strongly agitated by the blast that blew around us+."

Mr. Drummond, in his First Steps to Botany, observes, that what is called the needle-leaf of the Pines is necessary to them on account of the northern or Alpine regions they inhabit; for that with any other they could not have been evergreens," for in winter they would be overpowered with a weight of snow, and blown down by the hurricanes. The acerose leaf enables them to evade both; the snow falls through, and the wind penetrates the interstices. The winds struggling through the boughs

meet with such innumerable points and edges as, even when gentle, to cause a deep murmur or sighing, and when the breeze is strong, or the storm is abroad, the sounds produced are like the murmuring of the ocean, or the roar of billows among rocks."

"The loud wind through the forest wakes

With sound like ocean's roaring, wild and deep,
And in yon gloomy pines strange music makes,
Like symphonies unearthly heard in sleep;
The sobbing waters dash their waves and weep:
Where moans the blast its dreary path along,
The bending firs a mournful cadence keep,
And mountain rocks re-echo to the song,

As fitful raves the wind, the hills and woods among *."

This murmuring of the winds in the Pine trees has been noticed repeatedly Lucan compares it to many

united voices :

"He said; the ready legions vow to join
Their chief beloved, in every bold design;
All lift their well-approving heads on high,
And rend with peals of loud applause the sky.
Such is the sound when Thracian Boreas spreads
His weighty wing o'er Ossa's piny heads:
At once the noisy groves are all inclined,
And bending roar beneath the sweeping wind:
At once their rattling branches all they rear,
And drive the leafy clamour through the air.

ROWE'S Lucan, book i.

Wordsworth describes them as influenced by gentler

winds :

"An idle voice the sabbath region fills

Of Deep that calls to Deep across the hills,

* Drummond's First Step to Botany, p. 123.