I. 1. THE PITCH PINE. 67 



still found growing to the height of one hundred feet ; and men 

 are living in Massachusetts and Maine, who remember that it 

 was not uncommon to find them of more than a hundred feet in 

 height and four or five feet in diameter. 



Almost every where, however, the pitch pines form low 

 woods, occupying, together with thel ittle gray birch, tracts of 

 sterile land where few other trees would thrive. The edges and 

 openings among these trees are tenanted by the low, tender 

 blueberry, whose abundant fruit invites, at the season of its ma- 

 turity, immense flocks of wild pigeons. But at other seasons, 

 nothing can be stiller and more solemn than these forests. The 

 hermit thrush loves to sit in the top of a pine and charm the 

 woods with his solitary sweet notes, and when he is silent, a 

 person sitting on the fragrant decaying leaves or soft moss, at 

 its foot, may listen to the wind singing in its branches. The 

 " going of the wind " among the leaves of the pine, is a peculiar 

 sound. One accustomed to the woods easily distinguishes it 

 from every other sound ; and it is not difficult to believe that a 

 practised ear might distinguish every particular tree, without 

 the aid of sight, by the noise of the wind in its foliage. 



The root of the pitch pine penetrates almost at once to the 

 depth of one or two feet, and hence the difficulty of transplant- 

 ing the young trees. But the roots of those forty or sixty feet 

 high, which have been prostrated by the wind, are seldom 

 found more than two feet below the surface. The horizontal 

 ones are short, and are covered with a rough bark which comes 

 off in flakes. 



The trunk in dense woods is erect ; in more open situations, 

 it is often tortuous or angled. In the former case, where the 

 limbs have perished at an early stage of the tree's growth, and 

 its increase has depended upon a few branches near the top, 

 the trunk is entirely without branches to a great height, and 

 the wood is clear, and soft, free from knots, and almost free 

 from resin, and, from the slow growth, the bark is less rough 

 than usual. Such trees are called yellow pines, and are sup- 

 posed by lumber-men to be of a different species. 



The bark of the trunk is excessively rough, deeply cleft, and 

 very dark colored, whence the tree is sometimes called black 



