ENGELMANN REVISION OF THE GENUS PINUS, ETC. 187 



also found in damp clayey pine lands and with P. rigida, 

 var. serotina, in pine-barren ponds, rarely exclusively covering 

 small tracts, and only as a second growth in old fields. From 

 South Carolina, on the sea islands near Charleston, to Georgia 

 along the coast, and sparingly as far as 15 to 20 miles inland, 

 but never very far from the influence of salt water, Dr. Metli- 

 champ; to Georgia, Elliott; and Florida, Canby, Curtiss; form- 

 ing forests on the St. John's river, where it is often called Slush- 

 pine, and is not cut for timber, Sargent; "the most common 

 pine in South Florida, the 'short-straw pine' of the wood-cutters, 

 taller, more slender, and with harder wood than the ' long-straw 

 pine,' P. australis, which is the principal forest tree of Eastern, 

 Middle and Northern Florida," Dr. A. P. Garbcr ; extending 

 westward to Alabama, "a common tree along the bay of Mobile," 

 Mohr^ Sargent. Prof. Sargent observes that while the long-leaf 

 pine rapidly disappears under the axe, Elliott's pine becomes 

 more and more common, the young second growth forests in Flo- 

 ritla almost entirely consisting of this species and of Tccda. 



This is the earliest flowering pine of those regions, from 3 to 4 

 weeks in advance of any other pine, showing its rose-purple male 

 flower-buds already in December, and in January or February, 

 according to latitude and season, shedding its abundant pollen, 

 which, wafted by the winds, is apt to cover roads and streets, 

 and especially sheets and pools of water, far and wide, with its 

 sulphur-looking powder. P. austrahs, also with rose-purple flow- 

 ers, comes several weeks later, and then the others, P. Tceda., 

 next P. glabra and mitis, and lastly P. rigida var. seroiina with 

 greenish -yellow flowers. Our species bears abundantly every 

 year (at least in South Carolina), different from P. australis, 

 which, like many other pines, is fruitful only every other season. 

 The cones also mature and drop oft' earlier than those of the 

 associated pines, and shed an abundance of seeds, which readily 

 germinate about November, and develope their young stems in 

 spring. 



This tree Prof. Sargent considers by far the handsomest of all 

 the southern pines, readily distinguished from those, with which 

 it is associated, by its heavier, denser heads, darker foliage, and 

 larger and heavier branches. 



The red-brown bark is very characteristic of this species ; it is 



