CONIFEROUS FORESTS 



349 



in abandoned fields, but toward its southern limits it prefers steep 

 rocky bluffs. 



This pine, like others with very short leaves, has a thin bark and is 

 quite sensitive to fire, though a light ground fire does not necessarily 

 injure mature trees. In young thickets fire sometimes sweeps through 

 the tops of the trees and kills them outright, as in the boreal conifer 

 forests first mentioned. Its local distribution seems to be governed 

 largely by fire, as in the case of the red cedar, for the places where it 

 grows are usually pretty well protected by their isolation, as in aban- 

 doned fields, by topography, as on bluffs, or by the sparseness of the 

 undergrowth. 



This tree does not often grow large enough to be useful for anything 

 but fuel, charcoal and wood-pulp. 14 



The Southern Short-leaf Pines. — Two species (Pinus echinata and 

 P. Tceda), which although they are easily distinguished have much in 

 common, are called short-leaf pine in the South. The latter is distin- 

 guished in the literature of botany and forestry as "loblolly pine," .a 

 name which does not seem to be used much by lumbermen and other 

 " natives." 



Pinus echinata ranges from Staten Island and southern Missouri to 

 northern Florida and eastern Texas, ascending the mountains of 



Forest of Short-leaf Pine (Pinus echinata) a Few Miles Northeast of Talla- 

 hassee, Florida. April, 1914. 



14 The most complete account of it available is Bulletin 94 of the U. S. 

 Forest Service, by W. D. Sterrett, 1911. 



