20 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CONIFERS. 



stem and roots and the leaves contain tannin. 1 From the bark is obtained the compound syrup of 

 white pine, now largely used in the United States as an expectorant. 2 Coniferin, a glucoside, some- 

 times employed commercially in the manufacture of vanillin, is obtained from the cambium layer of 

 Pinus Strobus and from that of a few other conifers. 3 



During the seventeenth century the value of the White Pine as a timber-tree had been recognized 

 by the settlers on the north Atlantic coast ; 4 and before the middle of the sixteenth the wood, on 

 account of its reputed medicinal value, 5 had been carried to Europe by French navigators. The White 

 Pine was first described by Plukenet 6 in 1696, and was cultivated by the Duchess of Beaufort 7 in 

 1705 at Badminton. 8 



age in rich, well-drained soil and have been favored with abundant 

 air. Such trees are usually scattered singly through forests of 

 deciduous-leaved trees, and are nowhere abundant. 



1 Bastin & Trimble, Am. Jour. Pharm. lxviii. 28. 



2 Sherwin, Am. Jour. Pharm. lxviii. 233. 



H Hartig, Jahrb. Forst. i. 263. — Kubel, Jour. Prakt. Chem. xcvii. 

 243. — Tiemann & Haarmann, Berichte Deutsch. Chem. Gesell. vii. 

 608 ( Ueber das Coniferin und seine Umwandlung in das aromatische 

 Princip der Vanille). — U. S. Dispens. ed. 16, 1487. 



4 " Yellow and white pine timber, in all their varieties, is abun- 

 dant here, and we have heard the Northerners say (who reside 

 here) that the pine is as good here as the pine of Norway. But 

 the pine does not grow as well near the salt water, except in some 

 places. Inland, however, and high up the rivers, it grows in large 

 forests, and it is abundant, and heavy enough for masts and spars 

 for ships." {Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. ser. 2, i. 151 [Adrien Van der 

 Donck, Description of the New Netherlands].) 



" Board Pine, is a very large tree two or three Fadom about." 

 (Josselyn, New England Rarities, 61.) 



" The Pine-Tree challengeth the next place, and that sort which 

 is called Board-pine is the principal, it is a stately large Tree, very 

 tall, and sometimes two or three fadom about : of the body the 

 English make large Canows of 20 foot long, and two foot and a 

 half over, hollowing of them with an Adds, and shaping of the 

 outside like a Boat. Some conceive that the wood called Gopher 

 in Scripture, of which Noah made the Ark, was no other than 

 Pine, Gen. 6, 14. The bark thereof is good for Ulcers in tender 

 persons that refuse sharp medicines. The inner bark of young 

 board-pine cut small and stampt and boiled in a Gallon of water is 

 a very soveraign medicine for burn or scald, washing the sore with 

 some of the decoction, and then laying on the bark stampt very 

 soft : or for frozen limbs, to take out the fire and to heal them, 

 take the bark of Board-pine-Tree, cut it small and stamp it and 

 boil it in a gallon of water to Gelly, wash the sore with the liquor, 

 stamp the bark again till it be very soft and bind it on. The 

 Turpentine is excellent to heal wounds and cuts, and hath all the 

 properties of Venice Turpentine, the Rosen is as good as Frank- 

 incense, and the powder of the dryed leaves generateth flesh ; the 

 distilled water of the green Cones taketh away wrinkles in the face 

 being laid on with Cloths." (Josselyn, Account of Two Voyages to 

 New England, 64.) 



Silver shillings and coins of smaller denomination struck in the 

 Massachusetts Colony during the latter half of the seventeenth 

 century bore the device of n White Pine-tree. First known in 

 Boston as Bay shillings, they were called Pine-tree money in 1680. 

 (See Crosby, Early Coins of America, 56.) 



In the new charter of Massachusetts Bay of 1691, which was a 

 union of several separate grants into one legislature and jurisdic- 

 tion, " all trees fit for masts of 24 inches diameter and upwards 

 12 inches from the ground, growing upon land not heretofore 

 granted to any private persons, are reserved to the crown ; penalty 



for cutting any such reserved trees 100Z. sterl. per tree ; " and by 

 an act of the British Parliament, anno 1722, this clause is extended : 

 " That after Sept. 21, 1722, in New England, New York, and New 

 Jersey in America, no person shall cut or destroy any white pine 

 trees, not growing in any township or its bounds, without his ma- 

 jesty's licence ; on pain to forfeit for every white pine tree, of the 

 growth of 12 inches diameter and under, at 3 foot from the earth, 

 51. sterl. for every such tree from 12 to 18 inches, 101., from 18 to 

 24 inches, 20Z., from 24 and upwards, 501., to be sued before the 

 judge of admiralty : and all white pine trees, masts or logs made 

 of such trees, which shall be found cut or failed without the King's 

 licence, shall be forfeited and seized for the use of the crown. By 

 an act of parliament 1729, tbe penalty in this clause of the charter 

 is confirmed ; and the act of 1722 is extended to all the British 

 provinces in America ; and confines the exception to the property 

 of private persons only, notwithstanding they grow within the limits 

 of any township." (Douglas, A Summary, Historical and Political, 

 of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements, and Present State of 

 the British Settlements in North-America, i. 379.) 



In 1719 the surveyor-general of Maine caused Pine-trees fit for 

 masts to be marked with the letter R, in order to protect them 

 for royal use (Williamson, History of the State of Maine, ii. 98). 



When Maine was admitted into the Union in 1820 a White Pine 

 as the noblest inhabitant of its forests, was made the central figure 

 in the seal and arms of the new state. 



5 Belon (Arb. Conif. 21) satisfied himself of the worthlessness of 

 this wood for medical purposes ; but in his investigations he found 

 in the Royal Nurseries at Fontainebleau a single young specimen 

 of a five-leaved Pine, very like Pinus Cembra, which he called the 

 Pinaster, but with " folia exiliora." This little tree with thin leaves 

 Dr. Bolle believes to have been the White Pine ; and it is not 

 improbable that this tree, which could hardly have escaped the 

 attention of the earliest European navigators in Canadian waters, 

 was taken to France with the Arbor Vitse cultivated at Fontaine- 

 bleau before the middle of the sixteenth century. (See Bolle, 

 Gartenflora, 1890, 434 [ Wann erscheint die Weymouthskiefer zuerst 

 in Europa ?]. — Garden and Forest, iii. 536.) 



6 Pinus Virginiana Conis longis non (ut in vulgari) echinalis, Aim. 

 Bot. 297. 



Pinus Americana quinis ex uno folliculo setis, longis, tenuibus tri- 

 quetris, ad unum angulum, per totam longitudinem minutissimis crenis 

 asperatis, Plukenet, Amalth. Bot. 171. 



Pinus foliis longissimis ex una theca quinis : The White Pine Tree 

 nostratibus, Colden, Act. Hort. Ups. 1743, 229 (PZ. Novebor.). 



Pinus Canadensis quinquefolia, floribus albis, conis oblongis Sf pen- 

 dulis, squamis Abietifere similis, Duhamel, Traite des Arbres, ii. 127. 



Pinus foliis quinis cortice glabro, Clayton, Fl. Virgin, ed. 2, 152. 



' See ix. 19. 



8 Plukenet, Amalth. Bot. 171. — Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 369. — 

 Loudon, Arb. Brit. iv. 2280, f. 2193-2196. 



Pinus Strobus at once became popular with English planters 



