DEVELOPMENT OF CUBAN PINE. 81 



The slirinkage during drying is very considerable for sapwood, and therefore all young timber, 

 but is not as great for old timber as might be expected on account of the great weight of the 

 wood. Young timber shrinks from 12 to 13 per cent of its volume, the wood of old trees (over one 

 hundred and fifty years) only about 11 per cent, and in all trees the amount of shrinkage is 

 greatest in the heaviest disk of the bntt and decreases upward very much in proportion of the 

 deci'ease in weight. 



In its structure the wood resembles that of the Loblolly in every respect. Summerwood 

 and springwood aie sharply defined, giving rise to alternating bands of light-colored, soft and 

 dark colored hard bands of wood conspicuous in every section. For details of structure see the 

 comparative study by Mr. Both appended to these monographs. 



PKOGEESS OF DEVELOPMENT. 



This is the earliest flowering of the Southern pines. The buds of the male flowers make their 

 appearance in tlie early part of December, and the flowers open during the last days of January 

 and during the first week of February. This species produces abundant crops of cones every year, 

 almost without failure; they ripen in the fall of the second year; the seeds are discharged through 

 the winter of the second year nntil spring. Germinating easily, their seedlings are found to come 

 up copiously from early in the spring to the beginning of the summer in old flclds and on every 

 opening in the vicinity of the parent trees, wherever the rays of the sun reach the ground. The 

 plantlets bear sis to seven seed leaves (cotyledons). As soon as these have fairly expanded the 

 terminal bud develops rapidly, and the first interno 'e of the stem, increasing quickly in length, is 

 densely covered with the soft, narrow, linear, pointed, primary leaves, which are fully an inch long. 

 Before the end of the second month, in the axils of some of the leaves, the undeveloped branchlets, 

 bearing the fascicle of the foliage leaves, make their appearance. With the further development 

 of the foliage leaves, increasing in number during the growing season, the primary leaves wither 

 away. By the close of the first season the plantlets are from 8 to D inches high, with a very 

 slender taproot and many lateral rootlets near its upper end. After the beginning of the second 

 season but few of the primary leaves are found to support the buds of the foliage leaves. The 

 tendency to the produ(;tiou of secondary axes becomes manifest by the appearance of a single 

 branchlet ; on having reached the end of their second year the plants are from 12 to 15 inches high, 

 with a taproot not more than 4 inches long; at the end of their third year they average little less 

 than 2 feet in height, with the taproot C inches long — the laterals being much longer. The crown 

 from this period develops in regular whorls for a long succession of years. 



The Cuban Pine, in its rate of growth and when fully grown, exceeds in its dimensions the 

 Longleaf Pine. The taproot, less powerful than in its allies, is assisted by mighty lateral roots 

 running near the surface of the ground to support the tall, sturdy trunk, rising to a height of 110 

 or 115 feet, with a diameter of 2i, not unfrequently exceeding 3, feet, clear of limbs for a height of 

 from GO to 70 feet above the ground. The heavy limbs are horizontally spreading, from 22 to 21 

 feet at their greatest length, somewhat irregularly disposed; they form in the trees of full growth 

 a rather dense crown of rounded outline. Trees of the dimensions mentioned, having passed the 

 fullness of their growth, are found to be from one hundred to one hundred and forty years old, 

 according to the surrounding conditions. The thick bark is of a clear, reddish color, laminated, 

 and exfoliating in thin, broad, purplish flakes. 



Seedlings of the Longleaf Pine, which those of the Cuban Pine somewhat resemble, can be 

 readily distinguished at this period by the disproportion of height and diameter and absence of 

 branch growth in the former. The rate of growth ditters, of course, according to the conditions 

 of soil and exposure. 



Saplings showing Ave rings of annual growth were found from 4i to nearly 6 feet in height, 

 with a diameter of from three-fourths to seven-eighths of an inch; between the age of from ten 

 to twelve years the trees measure from 10 to 18 feet in height, with the stem clear for over half 

 its length — even when grown in the open — and from 2 up to 1 inches in diameter. From this 

 stage on the rate of growth proceeds most rapidly. At eighteen and twenty years heights of 40 

 to 50 feet and over, and diameters from 9 to 10 inches across the stump, cut close to the ground, 

 are attained. 



17433 -No. 13 G 



