ints, is of a bright red. After fertilization,
the scales augment in thickness; and, becoming firmly pressed against
each other, they form by their aggregation a fruit, which is three
years before it ripens. During the first year it is scarcely larger
than the female catkin; and during the second year it becomes
globular, and about the size of a walnut. The third year the cones
increase rapidly in size; the scales lose their reddish tinge, and
become of a beautiful green, the point alone remaining red; and at
last, about the end of the third year, they attain maturity. At
this period the cones are about four inches long and three inches in
diameter, and they have assumed a general reddish hue. The convex
part of the scales forms a depressed pyramid, with rounded angles, the
summit of which is umbilical. Each scale is hollow at its base; and in
its interior are two cavities, each containing a seed much larger than
that of any other kind of European pine, but the wing of which is, on
the contrary, much shorter. The woody shell which envelops the kernel
is hard and difficult to break in the common kind, but in the variety
fragilis it is tender, and easily broken by the fingers. In both the
kernel is white, sweet, and agreeable to the taste. The taproot of the
stone pine is nearly as strong as that of P. pinaster; and, like that
species, the trees, when transplanted, generally lean to one side,
from the head not being correctly balanced. Hence, in full-grown trees
of the Stone pine there is often a similar curvature at the base of
the trunk to that of the pinaster. The palmate form of the cotyledons
of the genus Pinus is particularly conspicuous in those of P. pinea.
When one of the ripe kernels is split in two, the cotyledons separate,
so as to represent roughly the form of a hand; and this, in some parts
of France, the country people call _la main de Dieu_, and believed
to be a remedy in cases of intermittent fever if swallowed in uneven
numbers, such as 3, 5, or 7. The duration of the tree is much greater
than that of the pinaster, and the timber is whiter and somewhat more
durable. In the climate of London trees of from fifteen to twenty
years' growth produce cones.

There are no well-marked varieties of the Stone pine, though in its
native districts geographical forms may occur. For instance, Loudon
describes a variety cretica, which is said to have larger cones and
more slender leaves. Duhamel also describes a variety