BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF SHORTLEAF PINE. 95 



Under tlie name of Spruce Pine, in the extreme Southern districts, it is invariably confounded 

 with the true Southern Spruce Pine {Tinus oJahra), the species which in several points it closely 

 resembles and to which it is most closely related. 



BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Leaves mostly 2 (sometimes 3) in a short sheath, 3 to 5 inches long; cones J A to 2 inches long, 

 oval or somewhat conical; scales with a short, tender, straight, and Anally incurved i)rickle, light 

 brown. Seeds ratiier small, two-fifths of an inch long, by one-tenth to one-eighth of an inch wide, 

 with dark, scattered or contiueut specks; the wings are reddish brown and about one-half of an inch 

 long. The young shoots are of a glaucous violet color. The bark of mature trees is rather thick 

 and broken up in S(|uarish plates. The different general appearance of the tree will almost always 

 serve to quickly distinguish it from the closely related Scrub Pine (Pinus rinjInitDia) which is 

 distinguished by its shorter and more rigid leaves. Any doubt can be removed by trying the 

 twigs; those of the Scrub Pine are tough while those of the Shortleaf Pine snap off readily. The 

 bark is of a light reddish browu color, and on the lower part of the trunk in full-grown trees 

 three-fourths to fully one inch thick crossed by deep furrows, and flaky. 



The limbs are arranged in more or less regular whorls, under full exjjosure, forming a crown 

 with the outline of a truncated pyramid, by which the tree can be recognized from a distance and 

 distinguished from kindred species with which it happens to be associated. The oldest and stout- 

 est limbs are rarely over 20 to 25 feet in length, and are somewhat drooping. 



It is indeed a l)eautiful tree, with its stately, gently tapering trunk and its finely shaped full 

 crown clothed in an abundance of foliage, bearing the stamp of thrifty and vigorous growth. 



Learts. — The secondary or foliage leaves are fouud mostly 2 in a, sheath, and on shoots of vig- 

 orous p-owth often 3 are found in a bundle; occasionally whole trees are seen with 3 leaves in a 

 sheath and in some rare instances on young trees even i have been counted (PI. XVI, (/, h). The 

 leaves vary from 3 to 4 inches and a little over in length; they are slender, about one-eighteenth 

 of an inch wide, strongly concave, slightly twisted, faintly serrulate, and abruptly sharp i)ointed, 

 while young of a yellowish and later on of a deeper green color. In the cross scftion (PI. X^', //, (') 

 they present a semicircular outliue; examined under the microscope they show on both sides about 

 ten rows of minute stomata (breathing pores) the small epidermal cells underlaid by a single layer 

 of rather thin-walled hypodermal or strengthening cells; in the specimens examined from 3 to i 

 peripheral resin ducts were found, the bundle sheath consisting of a single row of ctdls. The sheath 

 invests the leaves closely and rarely exceeds at any stages of growth three-sixteenths of an inch; 

 the leaves are shed during the latter part of their second year. 



The bract-like scales (PI. XV, b. c), modified primary leaves, which densely cover the young 

 shoots and in the axils of which the foliage leaves are produced, are while young of a grayish c(jlor, 

 closely appressed, lanceolate, acuminate, and fringed; with the subsequent development of the 

 foliage leaves aud the increase of the shoot in length, their tips become dried and are cast off. 

 As the tender shoots become hardened they assume a glaucous purplisli color. 



Flowers. — The flower buds make their appearance during the latter part of the winter aud 

 begin, in stations of southern latitudes, to open near the end of March (Baldwin County, Ala., 

 March26), and farther north from three to four weeks later (Cullman, Ala., April 28). The stami- 

 uate flowers are closely sessile, to the number of fifteen to twenty surrounding the terminal bud 

 (PI. XV, rt), which at the time has scarcely grown to the length of an eighth of an inch. The 

 staminal column, of a pale purplish color, does not exceed three-fourths of an inch in length, 

 is less than one-eighth of an inch in thickness, and is surrounded by eight or nine decussate 

 scales, those of the first pair being strongly keeled and scarcely half the size of the others (PI. 

 XV, d). The crest of the anthers is nearly circular and slightly denticulate. The male flowers 

 are shed immediately after the discharge of the pollen. The female flowers are united in an 

 oblong, obtuse, short-stalked catkiu of a delicate rose-pink color, about one-fourth of an inch in 

 length. They are rarely single, but mostly from two to four, produced closely below the apex of 

 the youngest shoot (I'l. XV, h). The stipe of the catkin, not over three-eighths of an inch in 

 length, is invested by twentyto twenty-four hyaline lanceolate, pointed, iuvolucral scales, those 

 immediately surrounding the flowers being widely spreading. The bracts subtending the carpellary 

 scales cover the latter to the base of their long, subulate, erect tips. 



