414 THE WHITE PINE. 



spicy foliage of the hypericum, which are protected in its 

 shade, and the fawn reposes on its brown couch of leaves, 

 unmolested by the outer tempest. From its green arbors 

 the quails are often roused in midwinter, where they feed 

 upon the berries of the michella and the spicy winter- 

 green. Nature, indeed, seems to have designed this tree 

 to protect her living creatures both in summer and 

 winter. 



The geographical limits of the White Pine are not very- 

 extensive. It is confined to northern regions, but does 

 not extend so far north as the red pine or the fir. In the 

 Southern and Middle States it is seen only in the Alle- 

 ghany range ; but it constitutes the principal timber of 

 the pine forests of Canada and the New England States, 

 which London says are " the most extensive in the 

 world." The debris of granite affords the best soil for 

 the coniferous trees, but the White Pine is seldom found 

 in marshes. The tree that bears the nearest resemblance 

 to it is the Lambert pine of California, to which our tree 

 approximates in size. Michaux measured two trunks near 

 the banks of the Kennebec, one of which was one hundred 

 and fifty-four feet in length, and fifty-four inches in di- 

 ameter ; the other, one hundred and forty-two feet in 

 length, and forty-four inches in diameter. 



