BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF LOBLOLLY PINE. 115 



Such trees, however, have at no time been plentiful and at present are rarely met. In its 

 average growth the diameter of the trunk, breast high, measures from 20 to 24 inches, and the 

 height from 95 to 110 feet. In wet places, somewhat distended at its base, the trunk tapers very 

 gradually to the crown, which covers from one-third to one half of its heiglit. The lowest limbs 

 are horizontally spreading, and toward the upper part of tlie tree they become gradually more erect. 

 The largest limbs are rarely found over 20 feet in length. The primary branches dividing in a 

 regular order of ramification into Tuimerous branches and branchlets, the crown becomes full and 

 compact toward the top. The bark of the full grown tree is, in the lower part of trunk, from 1 to 

 1 i inches thick, generally rough, of a grayish color, becoming smoother, flaky, and reddish brown 

 as the tree grows older. 



LEAVES. 



The leaves are united, to the number of three, in a smooth, close sheath, which in the young 

 foliage is about 1 inch long and in the next season scarcely half that length. (PI. XIX, c, h, d.) 



In the bushy growth of less than ten years the leaves are scarcely 5 iuches in length, resem- 

 bling closely the foliage of the Shortleaf Pine of equal age. Prof. L. Ward notes this resemblance 

 as a singular tact, which, as he very pointedly remarks, has the ettect of obscuring the gradual 

 appearance of this species among the young growth of the Shortleaf Pine.' In the following 

 years the leaves are from 7 to 9 inches long, less densely crowded on the slender branches than in 

 the Long-leaf and Cuban Pine, and persisting to the third year; the foliage is of a more open spray. 

 The leaves are stiff, slightly twisted, ronghish on the finely serrulated edges and the prominent 

 midrib, channeled on tlie up])er side, abruptly tipped by a rigid, sharp point (PL XIX, c, d), and 

 of a pale green color. They are scarcely one-sixteenth of an inch wide, about half as thick, and 

 present in the cross section on tlie dorsal side a convex and on the ventral side a strongly trian- 

 gular outline. Examined under the microscope they show on both surfaces from 10 to 12 rows 

 of rather large breathing pores (stomata), alternating with rows of luimerous hypodermal or 

 strengthening cells, in several layers. The cells of the bundle sheath are thin walled; the tibro- 

 vascular bundles are, on their ventral side, surrounded by a single row of small strengthening 

 cells. The rather large resinous ducts, from 3 to 5 in number, are peripheral, and placed irregu- 

 larly mostly about the angles (PI. XIX, e) ; sometimes smaller ducts are observed close to the 

 bundle sheath. 



FLORAL ORGANS. 



The staminate flowers are crowded, from 18 to 20 in number, below the apex of the youngest 

 shoot. (PI. XIX, a.) They are from three-fourths to one inch long, of sulphur-yellow color, and 

 surrounded at the base by from 8 to 10 ovate to lanceolate, leathery, involucral scales; the 

 lowest pair is nuich shorter than the others and strongly keeled; tliose of the uppermost row are 

 longest, narrow, lanceolate, and reflexed. The anthers are crowned with an erect orbicular crest. 

 After the discharge of the pollen the flowers are gradually shed. The pistillate flowers form an 

 oblong, erect catkin, borne on a short stalk, singly, in pairs, sometimes 3 to 1, below the apex 

 of the shoot (PI. XX, a) of the season, which by the time of blooming has already reached a 

 length of several inches and is covered with the well-advanced leaf buds. Including their stipe, 

 the female anients are about one-half to three-fourths of an inch long, surrounded by from 15 to 

 20 involucral scales similar to those of the staminate flower. The carpellai'y scales are ovate, 

 lajiceolate, tapering to a sharp, erect, and somewhat reflexed and twisted point. The small bracts 

 subtending the scales are orbicular, scarcely covering their base. 



The flowers open, in the coast region of the lower Southern States, about the second week of 

 March (Mobile, Ala., March 15 to 20), and in the interior from four to five weeks later (Cullman, 

 Ala., April 25). 



Immediately after pollination the female catkins increase i'ai)idly in size; before ten days have 

 passed the carpellary scales have doubled in size, and their tips become stiffly erect, the bracts 

 having remained stationary in their growth, and the fertile shoots having gi'own to the length of 

 8 iuches and over. This period passed, the growth of the couelets during the rest of the season 

 proceeds very slowly. 



' L. Ward : Botanical Gazette, February, 1886. 



