The Trees of Vermont 27 



PINACEAE 



White Pine 

 Pinus strobus L. 



Habit.- — A large tree 60-80 feet high, with a trunk diameter of 2-4 

 feet; forming a wide, pyramidal crown. Formerly trees 100-150 feet 

 in height and 5-7 feet in trunk diameter were not exceptional. 



Leaves. — In clusters of five; 3-5 inches long; slender, straight, 

 needle-shaped, 3-sided, mucronate; pale blue-green. Persistent about 

 2 years. 



Flowers. — June ; monoecious ; the staminate oval, light brown, 

 about ys inch long, surrounded by 6-8 involucral bracts ; the pistillate 

 cylindrical, about 34 inch long, pinkish purple, long-stalked. 



Fruit. — Autumn of second season, falling during the winter and 

 succeeding spring; pendent, short-stalked, narrow-cylindrical, often 

 curved, greenish cones, 4-10 inches long; scales rather loose, slightly 

 thickened at the apex ; seeds red-brown, 34 i"ch long, with wings 1 inch 

 long. 



Winter-buds. — Oblong-ovoid, sharp-pointed, yellow-brown, %- 

 Y^ inch long. 



Bark. — Twigs at first rusty-tomentose, later smooth and light 

 brown, finally thin, smooth, greenish ; thick, dark gray on the trunk, 

 shallowdy fissured into broad, scaly ridges. Plate I. 



Wood. — Light, soft, weak, compact, straight-grained, easily 

 worked, light brown, with thin, whitish sapwood. Page 215. 



Distribution. — Common throughout the state up to 1,000 feet 

 altitude, but most abundant in the Champlain and Connecticut valleys. 



Habitat. — Prefers a light, fertile loam ; sandy soils of granite 

 origin. 



Notes. — The white pine, growing as it does sometimes to im- 

 mense height, was one of the loftiest trees of the primeval New Eng- 

 land forest. Lumbermen have removed most of the patriarchs and 

 only the younger trees commonly remain. Its slender lustrous leaves 

 are borne in close clusters and give it a beauty and delicacy of foliage 

 possessed by no other pine. It is one of the most valuable and most 

 rapidly growing of Vermont's timber trees and is being planted every 

 year by the thousands in our state forests and by private owners. 



