The Pines of Western Asia

Abstract

ON p. 15 of NATURE of May 1, it is stated that Herr Hugo Bretzl, in a thesis for his Doctorate at Strassburg, has shown that “the Greeks realised such facts as the absence of the pine in all the countries which intervene between Macedonia and India.” That this statement is erroneous is proved by the following facts relating to the distribution of Macedonian and other species of Pinus in the countries alluded to. P. Pinea, Anatolia and Syria; P. sylvestris, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and Tauria; P. halepensis, Anatolia, Transcaucasia, Syria; P. Brutia, Asia Minor, the Lebanon, N. Persia; P. Laricio, Asia Minor. To these should be added various species of Picea and Abies, which the Greeks may have included under Pinus.