194 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



This pine, like others with very short leaves, has a thin bark 

 and is quite sensitive to fire, though a light ground-fire does not 

 necessarily injure mature trees. In young thickets fire some 

 times sweeps through the tops of the trees and kills them 

 outright, as in the boreal conifer forests first mentioned. Its 

 local distribution seems to be governed largely by fire, as in the 

 case of the red cedar, for the places where it grows are usually 

 pretty well protected by their isolation, as in abandoned fields, 

 by topography, as on bluffs, or by the sparseness of the 

 undergrowth. 



This tree does not often grow large enough to be useful for 

 anything but fuel, charcoal and wood-pulp. ^ 



The Southern Short-leaf Pines. — Two species {Ptnus 

 echinata and P. Tivda) which, although they are easily dis- 

 tmguished, have much in common, are called short-leaf pine in 

 the South. The latter is distinguished in the literature of botany 

 and forestry as "loblolly pine," a name which does not seem to 

 be used much by lumbermen and other "natives." 



Pinus echinata ranges from Staten Island and southern 

 Missouri to northern Florida and eastern Texas, ascending 

 the mountains of Georgia to an altitude of about 3000 feet, 

 while Ptnus Tteda grows from Cape May to Arkansas, Texas 

 and central Florida, rarely more than 1000 feet above sea-level. 

 The former grows in dry soils somewhat below the average in 

 fertility, while the latter prefers or tolerates a little more moisture 

 and humus. Both are usually more or less mixed with oaks and 

 hickories, or with each other, so that opportunities for getting 

 satisfactory photographs of them are not very numerous. 



The distribution of P. echinata corresponds approximately with 

 mean temperatures of 55° to 70°, and P. Tceda with about 

 60° to 72^ The latter does not seem to be capable of enduring 

 temperatures much below zero (Fahrenheit). It may be regarded 

 more appropriately than any other as the typical tree of the 

 South. Where it abounds cotton is the principal money crop, 

 about half the population is coloured, and a large majority of 

 the white voters are Democrats. In South Florida, where it is 

 unknown, there are no cotton fields, few negroes, few southern 

 traditions, and many northern people ; and substantially the 

 same might be said of the southern Appalachian region, western 



- The most complete account of it available is Bulletin 94 of the U.S. Forest 

 Service, by W. D. Sterrett, 1911. 



