THE PINE SUB-FAMILY. 89 



account, although yielding a fair proportion of tar and 

 turpentine. 



In a comparison of the opinions of Michaux and Lam- 

 bert, in regard to the value of the products of this Pine, 

 Loudon gives the following extracts. " Though this spe- 

 cies," Michaux observes, " yields turpentine and tar, their 

 extraction demands too much labor, as this Pine is always 

 mingled in the forest with other trees." Lambert, on the 

 contrary, asserts that "the wood has a sponginess and 

 lightness which deprives it of durability, and renders it 

 useless in building, or, indeed, for any purposes of a simi- 

 lar kind ; but it is tolerably full of resin, so that the 

 Americans employ it for its tar and pitch." 



In an ornamental point of view, it compares very favor- 

 ably with the majority of our cultivated foreign species. 

 The handsome, conical-shaped head has given it the name 

 of Spruce Pine; in some sections such may possibly be 

 the P. glabra, of Walter. The peculiar richness in the 

 coloring of the leaves, softly merging from a bright blu- 

 ish green to the darkest hue, in the alternate changes of 

 light and shade, is really charming. 



The leaves are very fine, slender, and flexible, and im- 

 part a peculiar beauty to the tree, which is not met with 

 in any other Pine that is a native of the Northern or Mid- 

 dle States, excepting, perhaps, a chance specimen of P. 

 rigida. On this account, a recent writer in recommend- 

 ing h for cultivation, very appropriately compared it to 

 the Austrian Pine, and says : " so far from being naturally 

 a scraggy tree, it thickens-in more naturally than any Pine 

 I know." 



A peculiarity in this species is, that when growing very 

 luxuriantly in rather rich soils, the leaves will often be 

 found three in a sheath, thus giving rise to the synonym 

 of Pursh, P. variaMUs, as well as the P. intermedia, of 

 Fischer, being deemed intermediate, or as a connecting link 

 between the Binae and Ternatse sections. Loudon also 



