EVERGREEN TREES AXD SHRUBS. 515 



THE PINES. Pinus. 



The hardy pines of the temperate zone will be grouped in three 

 divisions : First, those which are indigenous on the Atlantic slope 

 of the United States ; second, those which are indigenous on the Pa- 

 cific slope of the United States, including a few from the highlands 

 of Mexico ; third, those which are indigenous in Europe and Asia. 

 The latter division embraces a larger number than the others of 

 species which have proved desirable for embellishment ; and from 

 the fact that the most valuable of these have been in cultivation for 

 many centuries, and developed many interesting varieties, they are 

 rendered additionally interesting. 



Pine trees are generally distinguished from other families of 

 evergreens by the greater length of their needle leaves, and the fact 

 of their being grouped in two's, three's, and five's, issuing from a 

 common sheath. Botanists classify them, in part, by the number 

 of leaves to the sheath. 



PINES OF THE UNITED STATES ON THE ATLANTIC SLOPE. 



THE WHITE PINE. Pinus strobus. Though in one kind of 

 beauty or another, separately considered, the white pine may be 

 excelled by many other trees, we know of no hardy evergreen of 

 the temperate zone that unites so many elements of beauty, pictur- 

 esqueness and utility, as this noble native of our own forests. In 

 grandeur of elevation, and in the beauty of its columnar trunk, 

 regarded merely as a forest tree, it ranks among trees east of the 

 Rocky Mountains as the red-wood or big-tree (sequoia] and Doug- 

 lass spruce of California among the more colossal trees of the 

 Pacific slope. The white pine forests of Maine, New York, and the 

 northwestern States, furnish our country with more than half of all 

 the wood used in its buildings. It is recorded on high authority 

 that trees have been cut in Maine measuring upwards of two 

 hundred feet in height. Frigate main-masts one hundred and eight 

 feet in length have been made of single pieces of its timber. The 

 fact that this tree is of such vast use in the arts has caused it to be 



