and even then, when starving, after an attempt to consume the young needles of the buds, they abandoned the experiment.’
Captain the Hon. R. Coke, a very close observer of trees, sends us the following notes from Holkham:—
“In distinguishing between P. Laricio and P. austriaca, one must apparently be guided rather by the general appearance and habit of the trees, than by any hard and fast rules. Laricio always looks well-bred in comparison with the coarseness of austriaca. Even when the former develops great limbs, coarse in themselves, the more delicate foliage will distinguish it from its Austrian relative. A good instance of this may be seen at Wolterton, where a fine specimen of each are growing side by side.
"Though the curved or twisted leaves are usually considered to mark the Corsican, yet this feature has been noticed in trees thoroughly Austrian in every other respect; moreover, some Corsicans have straight leaves. Sometimes the branches being produced in regular whorls up the stem is considered to be the mark of a Laricio, but all Corsicans do not follow this rule.
“When planting the sandhills at Holkham at various times between 1855 and 1890, Lord Leicester took the precaution of wiring in austriaca against rabbits and omitting to do so in the case of Laricio. This was done because it had been found that the P. Laricio, which were all raised from the seed of the old trees at Holkham introduced from Corsica in the early part of the 19th century, were unharmed by rabbits, which eagerly devoured P. austriaca. At the present time, of the trees growing on the sandhills, namely, P. Laricio, P. austriaca, P. sylvestris, P. maritima, practically the only one which reproduces freely is the Laricio, as the rabbits, though no longer numerous, seem to be able to distinguish this tree from its congeners, and leave it untouched. On the other hand, some trees bought as Laricio from an English nurseryman, which had every appearance of being genuine, were recently planted to fill up gaps in a belt at Holkham, and in this case the rabbits ignored the nurseryman’s label, and made short work of the so-called Laricio.”
Mr. J.D.B. Whyte, agent to Lord Iveagh, confirms the statement that rabbits will eat Austrian, and will not touch Corsican pines when planted together; but though the gamekeeper says that he has never anywhere seen a Corsican damaged by rabbits, Mr. Whyte does not think that the question has been fully tested at Elveden. This tree and the Austrian pine are sometimes planted in the Eastern counties as belts and hedges, but do not form so dense a shelter, or bear clipping so well as the Scots pine.
The Corsican pine is apparently less liable than some other pines to the ravages of insects and fungi. A specimen, however, sent in July 1905 to Kew by Mr. Wellwood Maxwell of Kirkennan, near Dalbeattie, showed a branch attacked by Peziza Willkommii, and Sir Herbert Maxwell showed me a similar case on a tree at Monreith.
On the sandhills of the Norfolk coast, near Holkham, are a number of Austrian
! Hutchison, in Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. vii. 55 (1875).
