200 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



characteristically developed in this species than in T. distkhum). 

 Its favourite habitats are shallow ponds which dry up in spring, 

 and the swamps of coffee-coloured {i.e., not muddy) creeks and 

 small rivers. The regions where it grows have an average 

 temperature of 60^ to 75°, a growing season of 240 to 360 days, 

 and an annual rainfall of 40 to 65 inches, over 40 per cent, of 

 which falls in the four warmest months, June to September. 



The pond cypress has a thicker bark than its better-known 

 relative, and mature trees are practically immune to fire. The 

 ponds in which it grows are likely to be swept in the dry season 

 by fire, which chars the bark at the bases of the trees a little, 

 but does no perceptible harm. 



The wood is very similar to that of T. distichum (a little 

 stronger and heavier, if anything), and not satisfactorily dis- 

 tinguished in the lumber trade, but the tree is usually too small, 

 crooked or hollow to be worked up into lumber profitably. It is 

 used principally for shingles, posts, poles, piles, cross-ties, etc. 

 No statistics of its production are available, but it is evidently cut 

 most extensively in Georgia and Florida. 



The Southern Spruce Pine {Pifius glabra) is sometimes 

 called white pine, or " bottom white pine," on account of its 

 resemblance to the well-known northern tree, to which it is not 

 very closely related, however. It ranges from southern South 

 Carolina to central Florida and eastern Louisiana, in the coastal 

 plain, and never forms pure stands, but associates with hardwood 

 trees, especially the magnolia. It prefers soils well supplied 

 with humus and protected from fire, like the white pine and 

 hemlock, and is usually found in hammocks. 



Its wood is softer than that of most other southern pines, and 

 might be used as a substitute for white pine if it were more 

 abundant and better known. 



The Slash Pine {Finus Elliottii) is also strictly confined to 

 the coastal plain, ranging from southern South Carolina to 

 south-eastern Mississippi, inland about 165 miles in Georgia, and 

 southward to about latitude 27° in Florida. It is sometimes the 

 only tree on several acres, but is commonly associated with the 

 pond cypress just mentioned, in shallow ponds or in swamps of 

 small streams that are never muddy. 



Although it grows naturally only in saturated soil, it some- 

 times takes possession of comparatively dry ground from which 

 long-leaf pine has been cutoff; a circumstance which has led 



