THK SHORTLEAF PINE. 



By Charles Moiut, Ph. D. 



INTKODUCTORY. 



Aiuoiijj the timber trees of the Atlantic forest region the Sliortleaf Pine ranks with the first 

 of those noted for their economic importance. Equally abundant, distributed over a wider area, 

 and in the quality of its wood but little inferior, it takes its place next to the Longleaf Pine. 

 When maintenance of forest and production of tind)er under a rational system of forestry is 

 to become the rule, this si)ecies above all others of southerly distribution will claim attention, 

 for it can be safely asserted that of the coniferous trees adapted to the climatic conditions of 

 the Southern Atlantic forest, no other can be found of better promise for the production of 

 valuable timber in the shortest time. 



HISTOKICAL. 



The Sliortleaf Piue, besides furnishing to the colonists the supplies of pine timber required 

 for the construction of their dwellings, formed in early colonial times an article of export to ihe 

 mother country and the West Indies. Michaux, the younger, writing in the lirst years of this 

 century, speaks of this timber tree as becoming scarce near the ports. It seems that the specific 

 characters of this tree were but imperfectly understood by the earlier investigators of our sylva. 

 They were first accurately detiucd by Michaux, the father, who desciibed this tree in his Flora 

 Americana Borealis II, 204 (1803), under the name of Fimm mitis. A still more detailed descrip- 

 tion was soon afterwards given by IMichaux, tlie son, in his work on American forest trees (Eist. 

 Arb. Amer., 1, .')2, t. 3, 3810), with a full account of its value as a timber tree, the (jualities and 

 uses of its wood, and all that was known in those days of its ])]ace in the forest. Besides the 

 account given of the tree by the Rev. M. A. Curtis, of Xorth Carolina, in his "Trees of North 

 Carolina," little has been added to our knowledge of this ])ine until the publication in Professor 

 Sargent's report on the Forests of Xorth America,' of the results of the investigation which the 

 writer had carried on in the tiulf States," and I'rofessor Jlarvey in Arkansas.'" 



For valuable information on the occurrence of this pine on the Atlantic Coast and west of the 

 Alleghany Mountains, the writer is indebted to the kindness of correspondents active in the field 

 of botany. In regard to the area over which tiiis species is found distributed in the Southern 

 States, the information contained in tlie physiographic descriptions of the several counties of the 

 cotton States, in Professor Ililgard's report on cotton prodnction,^ were chiefly relied upon. 



UEOGEAPHICAL DISTEIBUI'ION. 



The Shortleaf Pine is widely distributed from the Atlantic Seaboard to the treeless plains of the 

 Indian Territory under 95° west longitude over L'o.p from east to west and UP from south to north, 

 namely, from 31° north latitude to Long Island, New York, or 41'^ north latitude along the Atlantic 

 Coast, while in the interior it only reaches to 39° in western Virginia. According to F, A. Michaux, 

 the Shortleaf Pine extended originally as far north as Albany, N. Y. The tree is at present not 

 known in New York outside of Long Island, and its existence even in Pennsylvania is considered 



1 Forest of North America, Volume IX of Tenth Census. (C. S. Sargent, 1880.) 

 2 C. Mobr : "Forest Trees of the Gulf Region " (Am. .Tour. Forestry, Vol. 1, 1883). 

 ' "Forest Trees of Arkansas." (Harvey : Am. .Jour, of For., Vol. I.) 

 ■■ Hilgard : Tenth Census Report, Vols. V and VI. 



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