DENDROLOGY. 243 



banks of rivers composed of deep, cool, black sand, and in 

 swamps covered with a thick and constantly humid carpet of 

 sphagnum. 



Near Norridgewock on the river Kennebeck, in one of the 

 swamps, which is accessible only in midsummer, M. Michaux 

 measured two trunks felled for canoes, of which one was 154 

 feet long and 54 inches in diameter, and the other 142 feet long 

 and 44 inches in diameter, at three feet from the ground. 

 Mention is made in Belknap's History of New Hampshire of a 

 white pine felled near the river Merimack, 7 feet 8 inches in 

 diameter. M. Michaux likewise measured a stump near 

 Hallowell, Maine, exceeding 6 feet in diameter : these enormous 

 trees had probably reached the greatest height attained by the 

 species, which is about 180 feet. But this ancient and majestic 

 inhabitant of the North American forests is still the loftiest and 

 most valuable of their productions, and its summit is seen at an 

 immense distance aspiring towards heaven, far above the heads 

 of the surrounding trees. The trunk is simple for two-thirds or 

 three-fourths of its height, and the limbs are short and verticillate, 

 or disposed in stages one above another to the top of the tree, 

 which is formed of three or four upright branches seemingly 

 detached and unsupported. In forests composed of other trees, 

 where the soil is strong and proper for the culture of corn, as for 

 example on the shores of Lake Champlain, it is arrested at a 

 lower height and diffused into a spacious summit ; but it is still 

 taller and more vigorous than the neighboring trees. On young 

 stocks not exceeding 40 feet in height the bark of the trunk and 

 branches is smooth and even polished ; as the tree advances in 

 age it splits and becomes rugged and gray, but does not fall off 

 in scales like that of the other pines. The white pine is also 

 distinguished by the sensible diminution of its trunk from the base 

 to the summit, in consequence of which it is more difficult to 

 procure sticks of great length and uniform diameter : this 

 disadvantage, however, is compensated by its bulk and by the 

 small proportion of alburnum. The leaves are five-fold, four 

 inches long, numerous, slender, and of a bluish green : to the 

 lightness and delicacy of the foliage is owing the elegant appear- 



