186 NOTES ON FOREST TREES. 



to be of nearly the same size. They are tall and straight 

 and with no limbs for fifty feet. 



The trees stand so close to each other that the beautiful 

 long dark green foliage shuts out the sky, and most of the 

 sunlight, and makes this grove particularly interesting to 

 the lover of nature. There was no undergrowth and the 

 only thing on the carpet of yellow, formed by the annual 

 deposit of dead leaves, was an occasional fallen tree. We 

 cut one that measured 18 inches in diameter and was 94 

 feet high. There were 120 annual circles of growth on 

 the stump. This was the largest tree found ; but it was 

 only 2 inches larger in circumference than many others 

 and comparing observations made here and in eastern Mass- 

 achusetts it was decided that these trees grow no larger at 

 the north. 



Pinus rigida (Pitch Pine) grows abundantly on the 

 light sandy soil in the vicinity of Lake Champlain, from 

 Keeseville to "Point of Rush", a distance of forty miles 

 and extending inland ten miles; and on the outskirts of vil- 

 lages, small groves of young trees of this species are found 

 growing on sandy hill sides. No distinction is made here 

 between the red and the pitch pines. A man was en- 

 gaged to cut and haul a red pine 9 feet in circumference 

 which he felt he could do. In three or four clays he brought 

 a pitch pine of the required size ; it was not the species 

 engaged, so it could not be taken. The folio wins: dav he 

 brought four men with him to ascertain why it was not 

 red pine. They said one tree would sell as well as the 

 other at the saw mill for red pine : all this was after both 

 species had been shown, and the difference in bark, cones 

 and leaves explained. 



Pinus banksiana {Gray or Scrub Pine) is quite a rare 

 tree in New York. Seldom more than four or five growing 

 within ten miles of each other. Solitary ones are most 



