636 



-fe. 



MO>OECIA MONADELPHIA 



6, TiEDA. 



A 



« 



P. 



Lin. 



foliis elongatis. 



terms, vaeinis 



tis, strobilis 

 conicis, deflexis 



elonga- 

 oblongo- 



? 



folio 



brevioribus, spinis in 

 flexis. 



Leaves 



threes 



f 



the 



long, 



sheaths 



long; cones oblong-co- 

 nical, deflexed, shorter 

 than the leaves; spines 

 inflexed. 



Sp. pi. 4. p. 498. Mich. 2. p. 205. Pursh, 2. p. 644. Nutt. 2. p. 223 



This is probably the largest species of pine in the Southern States- Along 

 the margins of swamps it grows sometimes upwards of an hundred feet in 

 height, and 3 feet in diameter. I have measured the trunk of one, which 

 was 72 or 3 feet long without a branch. Its bark is thicker and coarser and 

 more deeply furrowed than that of any species. Leaves 6 — 10 inches, 3 m 

 a sheath. Cones 2 — 5 inches long, conical. Scales loosely imbricate, 

 armed with a rigid spine- * 



This species is very abundant in South-Carolina and Georgia, along the 

 sea-coast perhaps even more common than the P. Palustris. Its wood is 

 used for all of the purposes to which that species is applied^ but the heart or 

 real wood is much smaller in proportion to its diameter, and even in ite best 

 state it is very inferior. It is therefore only as a substitute that it is em- 

 ployed where the P. Palustris cannot be readily obtained. There is so little 

 rosin in this pine, that when dead it decays entirely and forms no lightwood. 

 Its seed is dispersed so easily and so universally over the country, that au 

 lands which are thrown out of cultivation are immediately covered'with this 

 tree, intermingled however if the soil be sandy with the P. Palustris. 



^ 



Var. Heterophylla. 



# 



Along the marshes near the mouths of the fresh-water rivers, (at least m 

 Georgia) this pine is very common. It is frequently called the smooth-bark 

 Loblolly Pine. It becomes occasionally a very large tree; its bark is as 

 smooth as that of P. Palustris but in longer scales^ it has more sap-wood 

 than any of our pines, and its leaves I have found in some instances by twos 

 and threes indiscriminately mingled even on the old branches. Not navmg 

 had an opportunity of seeing Lambert's splendid monograph on the genus 

 Pmus, I was, until lately, accustomed to consider this as his P. Variabilis. 



This species, (as all I believe of the real pines) bears araents of sterile flow- 

 ers in clusters at the summit of the branches, the calyx yellow, tinged more 

 or less with violet, the flowers when mature discharge so much pollen, that 



of 



du^. 



17 



pool 



Even in the streets of Chnrleston, after heavy storms, I have seen 



^cxos& 



>- 



/ 



