PINUS INSIGNIS

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 146, 18 December 1933, Page 8

PINUS INSIGNIS

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l was pleased to see in your issue oil the loth inst a letter by "Kenya" correcting Mr. A. C. Bretherton with respect to his statement that pine trees require snow to break off their side branches before they can be successfully grown for timber purposes. "Kenya," however, is not correct in saying that pinus insignis received its "specific name "owing to its ability to adapt itself to almost any climatic conditions." "Insignis" means remarkable, and this adjective was applied to the' tree because a well-grown healthy tree lias beauty o£ form and foliage. Now, however, as the tree has become very common few. persons perceive this beauty. The tree was first discovered in 1787 by a Frenchman of La, Perouse's expedition, and it was described by the botanist Loiseleur in 1812. For a time the tree was lost, but it was re-discovered by Douglas during his sojourn at Monterey during 1831-1832. For hubarium purposes _ only it was given the name of pinus insignis, but it was given this name definitely,by Loudon in his celebrated work on British trees and shrubs published iv 183 S. It was found, however, that in a paper read before the Linnean Society in 1835 David Don had named the tree pinus radiata. This latter name stands, therefore, . because of right of priority. An interesting fact .about this tree is that it grows naturally on the Californian mainland only on a strip of coast 150 miles long from Peseadero to San Simeon Bay* spreading inland only a few miles. It also grows in a peculiar form on some of the islands off the Californian coast. It could not, therefore, have received its name in 1838 because of any known adaptability to varied climatic conditions.—l am, etc., E. PHILLIPS TURNER. Hamilton, December 16.