Although not such an important tree in this country as many other conifers, the Stone pine possesses a peculiar interest beyond that of any other European conifer. From the earliest periods it has been the theme of classical writers. Ovid and Pliny describe it; Virgil alludes to it as a most beautiful ornament; and Horace mentions a pine agreeing in character with the Stone pine; while in Pompeii and Herculaneum we find figures of pine cones in drawings and on the arabesques; and even kernels of charred pines have been discovered. The Pinaster of the ancients does not appear to be the same as that of the moderns; the former was said to be of extraordinary height, while the latter is almost as low as the Stone pine. No forest is fraught with more poetical and classical interest than the pine wood of Ravenna, the glories of which have been especially sung by Dante, Boccacio, Dryden and Byron, and it is still known as the "Vicolo de' Poeti." The Stone pine is found in a wild state on the sandy coasts and hills of Tuscany, to the west of the Apennines, and on the hills of Genoa, usually accompanied by, and frequently forming forests with, the Pinus pinaster. It is generally cultivated throughout the whole of Italy, from the foot of the Alps to Sicily. It is not commonly found higher than from 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet, but it occurs in the south of Italy as high as 2,000 feet. It is found, according to Sibthorp, on the sandy coasts of the Western Peloponnesus, in the same conditions, probably, as in the middle of Italy; it is also met with in the island of Melida. Cultivated, it is found on all the shores of the Mediterranean. In northern Europe, and especially in England, its general appearance is certainly that of a low-growing tree, its densely clothed branches forming almost a spherical mass; but in the sunny south it attains a height of 75 feet to 100 feet, losing, as it ascends, all its branches, except those toward the summit, which, in maturity, assume a mushroom form.