NOMENCLATURE OF SHORTLEAF PINE. 93 



Lave been shipped fioiii points in Texas, Arkansas, and southern ^Missouri to Northern markets. 

 This amount maybe swelled by the production east of the Mississippi to round numbers of 

 1,500,000,()()0 feet, board measure. 



As stated before, an estimate of the timber of this species standing is impossible on account 

 of its scattered distribution and prevalent occurrence in mixed growths. P.nt considering the 

 extent of the areas within which it occurs and the average cut on the same, or comparing with the 

 amounts of Longleaf Pine, which on account of the compact bodies in which it occurs, can be more 

 readily approximated, it is safe to assume tliat very much less than 100,000,000,000 feet remain 

 available, while the cut can be roughly estimated at 1,500,000,000 feet, board measure. 



PRODUCTS. 



Among the coniferous trees of eastern North America the Shortleaf I'ine stands next to 

 the Longleaf Pine in importance to the lumber industry and in the value of its timber. Freer 

 from resinous matter, softer, more easily worked, not less susceptible of a good finish, the 

 lumber of the SLortleaf Pine is often preferred by the cabinetmaker and the house carpenter to 

 that of the Longleaf Pine. Less tenacious, and of less power of resistance under strain, it is 

 principally used for the lighter framework iu buildings, for weatlierboarding, flooring, ceiling, 

 wainscoting, cases for windows and doors, for frames and sashes of all kinds, and for shingles. 

 Most of the dwellings located within the districts where this tree prevails are built almost entirely 

 of Shortleaf Pine lumber, which bears ample testimony to its wide usefulness. It is also 

 extensively employed iu car building, for cross-ties, and in the manufacture of furniture. 



NOMENCLATURE AND CLASSIFICATION. 



This species, like all of the same genus of a decidedly Southern distribution in the Atlantic 

 forest, belongs to the section Pinmhr as defined by Engelmann, with cones of tough, woody scales 

 their exposed ends thickened by an umbonate swelling (ai)ophysis), which is armed with a weaker 

 or stronger deciduous or persistent prickle or mucro. It was first described by Miller in the year 

 17G8 as Pinus echinata,^ and under that name recognized by the earliest writers ou North American 

 forest trees;' it was subsequently named by an obscure writer Pinus rirf/iniana, vai: cehinata, 

 ])u Eoi.-' INIichaux described this tree in his North American Flora ^ under the name of PiniiJ, 

 mitis, which received general recognition and by which it is known to botanists to the present 

 day. Pinus variabUu, the name under which it was described at about the same time by Lam- 

 bert,= was adopted by Wildenow, and following that author by Pursh, Nuttall, l<;iliott, and a few 

 others of the writers on the botany of this country. In following strictly the rule of priority, at 

 present m(jst strongly advocated as the only measure to avoid further the confusion arising from 

 an endless number of synonyms, Pinus mitis, the name under which it is generally known, will 

 have to be abandoned, and the more obscure one, PmH.v cch inatd , under which this species was 

 first published, restored. 



Great confusion is caused by the various appellations this tree has received in the Phiglish ver- 

 nacular, being indiscriminately called Shortleaf Pine, Yellow Pine, and Spruce Pine, although most 

 widely known under the first of these names, and in the markets it is now somewhat doubtfully 

 established under the name of North Carolina Pine. In the States of the lower South it is fre- 

 quently confounded with the Loblolly Pine, as the timber of the two is often, if not mostly, mixed. 

 M. A. Curtis, in his "Trees of North Carolina," selected for this tree the name of Yellow Pine, 

 strongly recommending its general adoption in order to introduce greater uniformity in the desig- 

 nations of our forest trees. Unfortunately the same name is in many of the Southern lumbering 

 districts bestowed upon the Longleaf Pine, particularly when the timber is spoken of. It is often 

 (juite impossible to determine to which of the two species the timber is to be referred when under 

 that name it is quoted in the reports of the lumber markets. 



' Miller's Dictiouaiy, 8tli e<l., 1768: London. 



■-Marsliall's Arboretum Americanum: Philaclelphia, 17S5. 



^ Du Roi Hb. 



■•A. Michuux's Flora Amer. boreal., Paris, 1803. 



'* Description of the Genus Pinus: A. B. Lambert, 1803 and 1824. 



