THE SPRUCE PINE. 



By CUAIiLES MOHR, Pll. D. 



INTBODTJCTOEY. 



Tlie Spruce Pine is the least common of the pines found in tbe lower Southern States. The 

 tree is frequently confounded by the inhabitants with the Shortleaf Pine, to w hich it is closely 

 related. Its vernacular names are, in diffoi'cnt sections of its range, applied to several other pines; 

 in Florida to the Sand Pine (Finns chtusd)^ in north Alabama to the Scrub Pine [I'inus rirginimm), 

 and in the southern part of this State even to the Cuban Pine. Although never forming extensive 

 bodies of timber, being for tlie most part widely scattei'ed among the broadlcaf evergreens and 

 deciduous trees with which it is associated, and in the quality of its wood of low rank, this little 

 known tree has been given a place here among the monographs of the timber pines of the South 

 Atlantic forest region in order to dispel for the future its confusion with some (if these trees, and 

 at the same time to attract the attention of the tree planter to it as the only imc of its kind wliich 

 thrives and propagates in the shade, keeping its gi'onnd closely surrounded by the luxuriant and 

 varied tree growth with which it is associated, and soon outstripping the same by the rapidity of 

 its growth. Considering that among all others of its kind in the same region it attains the fullness 

 of its growth in the shortest time, with dimensions which render it valnable for many of the pur- 

 poses for which the softer and lighter kinds of timber are used, its economic importance can not 

 be ignored. 



HISTORICAL. 



The Spruce Pine was first recognized as a distinct species and described as Phms glabra by 

 Walter, in his Flora Carolinensis in 1788, having since that time been known under this mime 

 by the botanists. Hidden in the remote semiswampy dense forests, it escaped the attention of 

 later botanists. Neither the Michauxs, father and son, nor Nuttall were aware of its existence. 

 It was unknown for fully three-fourths of a century until rediscovered by Professor Eavenel in 

 the swamps of Berkeley County, S. C. Ten years later the tree was described in Chapman's Flora, 

 18C0. It was recognized by Professor Ililgard in the Pearl River Valley, Mississijipi. In.l880 its 

 distribution was traced by the writer through the Gulf region to its western limit in the eastern 

 parishes of Louisiana. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



The Spruce Pine is a tree of the southeastern Atlantic forest, confined to the subtropical 

 region or the Louisianiau zone of American botanists, within that part of the coastal plain of the 

 southern Atlantic and the Gulf States embraced between the thirty-first and thirty-third degrees 

 of north latitude; from South Carolina through middle and northwestern Florida to Louisiana, 

 with its western limit between the Pearl and ^lississippi rivers. This tree is mostly found single 

 or in groups on the low terraces with a fresh or damp soil rich in humus, rising above the swamps 

 subject to frequent overflow. It is seldom seen to form compact bodies of timber; such have only 

 been observed between tlie Chattahoochee and Choctawhatchee rivers, in northwestern Florida, 

 where, to all appearances, this tree finds its best development on isolated tracts of fertile red loam 

 lands. 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE. 



Nowhere forming pure forests of any extent, this i)ine is of little importance to the lumbering 

 interests of the present, and its timber has never become an article of commerce. Although the 

 timber is of inferior quality, it furnishes lumber of dimensions equaling the best of our timber 



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