All the species are arborescent or shrubby, varying in size from the most stately of forest trees to the dwarfish bush.
In 1814 Sir Walter Scott met a dwarfish traveller in the Orkneys, whom the natives regarded as a " Pecht " or Pict.
It is believed that there are traces of an aboriginal people (the Vazimba), who occupied portions of the interior before the advent of the present inhabitants, and these appear to have been a somewhat dwarfish race, and lighter-coloured than the Malagasy generally.
Nearly allied is P. Banksiana, the grey or Labrador pine, sometimes called the scrub pine from its dwarfish habit; it is the most northerly representative of the genus in America, and is chiefly remarkable for its much recurved and twisted cones, about 2 in.
Splendid dwarfish bulbs, thriving in deep, sandy, wellenriched garden soil, and increased by offsets.
The true jungle veddahs are almost a dwarfish race.