118 



trees measured were from 10 to 12 feet in circumference, 

 3 feet from the ground, and one with a very irregularly 

 shaped head measured 13 J feet at just above the ground, 

 and 12 feet in circumference as high as Ave could place the 

 tape. Few trees here exceed a height of 100 feet. Many 

 persons here present may remember the exhibit made at 

 the Centennial Exhibition by the Canadian lumber dealers, 

 where one huge section of a White pine was shown 8 feet 

 6 inches in diameter, or 25£ feet in circumference. Few 

 such trees exist now. 



Emerson speaks in "Trees and Shrubs of Mass.," of a 

 White pine tree in the eastern part of New York state, 

 which was 240 feet high ; and one in Lancaster, N. H. 

 was found, which measured 264 feet in height. 



A mast was made in N. H. fifty years ago, 90 feet long, 

 which had a diameter of 36 inches at the base and 24 at 

 the summit, a difference so slight, as not to be perceptible 

 to a person standing at the smaller end, looking towards 

 the larger. 4 



The pines belong to a large family of plants called by 

 botanists the Coniferre, or Cone-bearers, referring to the 

 peculiar fruit borne by most of the trees of this order. 



The Con i ferae are found to have made their first appear- 

 ance upon the earth at about the same time as the ferns, 

 during the Devonian, or age of fishes. At that time, and 

 during the succeeding periods, there were many huge 

 plants, called Lepidodendron, and Sigillaria, which had 

 trunks as large, and as high as many pines. These were 

 the ancestors of our club mosses, which only now grow 

 to a foot high. 



4 The Pitch pine does not reach the size of the White pine, and with us there 

 are few very large trees. 



The Red pine in Essex county is now and then seen, 18 inches in diameter and 

 perhaps 70 feet high. 



