NANTUCKET TREES 15 



Jones's father is now a sheltering grove at Wauwinet 26 

 and many estates on the island are making use of this 

 evergreen as a -wind-break. It is perhaps perverse criti- 

 cism to -wish that the black pine had more of the pictur- 

 esque habit of pitch pine. It soon loses its youthful 

 pyramidal fullness to a somevhat sprawling adult contour 

 but on Nantucket it may not yet have had time to reach 

 picturesque old age. 



In a survey of the island trees of today one 

 should add to those which have grown up in the bog asy- 

 lums the few woods which have persisted from the time 

 of the settlers. On the high land at Co3kata- there is 

 still an oak forest as when the "Broad Woods" 10 were 

 the chief resource of Nantucket settlers. Coatue beach 

 is still bordered by a line of ancient cedars as when 

 the villagers went across the ice in winter to gather 

 firewood. Each winter the salt spray kills the outposts 

 of this cedar while the sand, through the years, has 

 buried all but the recent growth. Rich green sprays 

 laden with blue-grey fruits, spreading close to the sand, 

 may be the top of a century-old tree. One such tree 

 which was killed by the salt spray in 1935 showed 107 

 years of wood rings. Its top had a spread of 24 feet 

 and it was only 5 feet tall. Buttresses on the south 

 side of the clustered branches showed how it had braced 

 itself against the north winds. 28 Bassett Jones has 

 preserved this great stump. 



Coatue cedars seem to be helping to reforest 

 Nantucket. Perhaps birds carry the berries across. At 

 any rate,, between the Shimmo shore and the Polpis road, 

 directly across the harbor from Coatue, the low rolling 

 hills are dotted with a growth of cedars of all ages 

 from foot-high sprouts still clothed in the juvenile 

 type of needle-pointed leaves to fruiting trees. They 

 are scattered beyond the road also. Their dark green 

 accentuates many a slope amid Saul's Hills. Here and 

 there over the island an old red cedar connects the 

 growth with earlier days. This is a promise of native 

 timber for the future as red cedar does not demand rich 

 soil. It flourishes along with the golden- flowered 

 Hudsonia and Andropogon grass in the sandy soil of the 

 moorlands . 



