THE PITCH PINK 



THE Pitch Pine differs very widely in its style of 

 growth from the white pine, and displays fewer of those 

 points that excite our admiration. Its leaves form larger 

 and more diffusive tufts, and are more bristling and erect 

 from their superior rigidity. It is remarkable for its 

 rough and shaggy appearance; hence its Latin name, 

 rigida. Indeed there is not a tree in our forest that 

 equals it in the roughness that is manifest in every part 

 of it and in every stage of its growth. This is one 

 of the most common trees in the Southern "pine bar- 

 rens " ; and some of the ancient pine woods in New 

 England were made up principally of this species. Such 

 was that extensive wood near Concord, N. H., known by 

 the poetic appellation of " Dark Plains," and in the early 

 part of the century occupying a wide flat region in the 

 valley of the Merrimack Eiver. 



This species does not give out its branches horizontally, 

 nor in regular whorls. They run up at rather a wide an- 

 gle with the stem, forming a head that approaches more 

 nearly to a globular shape than that of any other of the 

 American conifers. The branches have frequently a tor- 

 tuous shape; for when crowded in a dense wood they 

 do not so easily perish as those of the white pine, but 

 turn in various directions to find light and space. They 

 are likewise often bent downwards at their terminations, 

 with a very apparent curvature. There is no conifer that 

 displays so few straight lines in its composition; and, 

 having no exact symmetry in its proportions, it may be 



