246 SYLVA AMERICANA. 



The leaves are fine, of a light green, six inches long, and united 

 to the number of three and sometimes of four on young and 

 vigorous stocks. The bloom takes place in the beginning of 

 April ; the aments are nearly an inch long, and are bent and 

 intermingled like those of the long-leaved pine. The cones are 

 about four inches in length, and armed with strong spines ; while 

 closed they have the form of an elongated pyramid, and when 

 open of a rhombus more or less perfect : the seeds are cast the 

 first year. 



The wood of this tree has a still greater proportion of sap 

 than that of the pond and pitch pines : in trunks three feet in 

 diameter, there are thirty inches of alburnum, and those of a foot 

 in diameter and thirty or thirty-five feet in height, not more than 

 an inch of heart. The concentric circles are widely distant, as 

 might be supposed from the rapidity of its growth in the more 

 Southern States ; in Virginia, where it vegetates more slowly, its 

 texture is closer and the proportion of sap less considerable. 

 This wood is much used for building houses in Virginia. In the 

 ports of the Southern States it is used, like the pitch pine in 

 those of the north, for the pumps of ships ; at Charleston the 

 wharves are built with logs of the loblolly pine, consolidated 

 with earth ; it is much esteemed by bakers to heat their ovens. 

 It affords turpentine in abundance, but in a less fluid state than 

 that of the long-leaved pine ; as it contains more alburnum, from 

 which the turpentine distils, perhaps by making deeper incisions 

 it would yield a greater product. 



PLANERA. 



Tetrandria Tetragynia. Linn. Amentaceae. Juss. Astringent, tonic, 



emollient. 



Planer Tree. Planer a ulmifolia. 



Kentucky, Tennessee, the banks of the Mississippi and the 

 Southern States are the native places of this tree. It generally 

 grows on the borders of rivers or in swamps. 



