26 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



Distribution. Light sandy loam or dry rocky ridges, usually forming groves 

 rarely more than a few hundred acres in extent and scattered througli forests of other 

 Pines and deciduous-leaved trees from Nova Scotia to Lake 8t. John, westward 

 through Quebec and central Ontario to the valley of the Winnipeg River, and south- 

 ward to eastern Massachusetts, the mountains of Pennsylvania; and to central 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and Miiniesota, most abundant and growing to its largest size 

 in the northern parts of these states; rare and local in eastern Massachusetts and 

 southward. 



Often planted for the decoration of parks, and the most desirable as an ornamental 

 tree of the Pitch Pines which flourish in the northern states. 



26. Pinus contorta, Loud. Scrub Pine. 



Leaves dark green, slender, I'-l^' long, marked by G-10 rows of stomata on each 

 face, mostly deciduous in their seventh and eighth years. Flowers orange-red : 

 staniiuate in short crowded spikes ; pistillate clustered or in pairs on stout stalks. 



Fruit oval to subcylindri- 

 cal, usually very oblique 

 at the base, horizontal or 

 declining, often clustered, 

 |'-2' long, with thin 

 slightly concave scales 

 armed with long slender 

 more or less recurved 

 often deciduous prickles, 

 and toward the base of 

 the cone especially on the 

 upper side developed into 

 thick mammillate knobs, 

 becoming light yellow- 

 brown and lustrous, sometimes opening and losing their seeds as soon as ripe, or 

 remaining closed on the branches and preserving the vitality of their seeds for many 

 years ; seeds oblique at the apex, acute below, about ^' long, with a thin brittle 

 dark red-brown shell mottled with black and wings widest above the base, gradually 

 tapering toward the oblique apex, ^' long. 



A tree, sometimes fertile when only a few inches high, usually 15-20 or occa- 

 sionally 30 tall, with a short trunk rarely more than 18' in diameter, compara- 

 tively thick branches forming a round-topped compact and symmetrical or an open 

 picturesque head, and stout branchlets light orange color when they first appear, 

 finally becoming dark red-brown or occasionally almost black. Bark of the trunk 

 f'-l' thick, deeply and irregularly divided by vertical and cross fissures into small 

 oblong plates covered with closely appressed dark red-brown scales tinged with 

 purple or orange color. Wood light, hard, strong although brittle, coarse-grained, 

 light brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood ; occasionally used for 

 fuel. 



Distribution. Coast of Alaska, usually in sphagnum-covered bogs southward in 

 the immediate neighborhood of the coast to the valley of the Albion River, Men- 

 docino County, California ; south of the northern boundary of the United States 

 generally inhabiting sand dunes and barrens or occasionally near the shores of 

 Puget Sound the margins of tide pools and deep wet swamps ; spreading inland 



