REPORT ON FORESTS. 239 



extensive growth. A chemical examination disappoints one in 

 this respect. Very little dependence, however, can be put in 

 the analysis of a soil. Although the essential ingredients may 

 be present in sufficient quantity, they may not be in available 

 form. A soil may be physically and chemically good, but if 

 moisture is insufficient, the forest will be light and commercially 

 of little importance. 



The Plains are covered with a low bushy growth of several 

 species. The highest tree (a sassafras) measured in this whole 

 region was fifteen feet (four and one-half metres). The most 

 peculiar feature of this area is the fact that a large part of the 

 growth is a coppice of pine. By the natives these short, stunted 

 pines are called "she-pines."* They are the stump-shoots of 

 Pimis rigida, commonly called the rough-bark or pitch-pine. 

 When this pine is cut many shoots sprout from the stump, but 

 since insects soon attack and devour it, the young shoots usually 

 die in consequence while still small and tender. There is a 

 strong tendency in the pitch-pine, Pinus rigida, to send out 

 shoots, especially when growing under adverse conditions. Soon 

 after a fire, with the foliage completely burned, and the bole 

 girdled, many dormant buds in the crown and on the trunk 

 develop into shoots, which soon, however, wither and die. 

 Even logs which have been cut and hauled to the mill send 

 out similar shoots. These, of course, wither and die just as 

 soon as the starchy materials and moisture in the trunk are 

 exhausted. The poorer the soil, and more adverse the condi- 

 tions, the stronger seems the tendency to sprout from the 

 stiimp. Sprouting in this way is rare among the conifers, and, 

 although of interest botanically, is commercially of no signifi- 

 cance whatever. Ordinarily a pine coppice is short-lived, but 

 on the Plains it has persisted for many years. Fire sweeps over 

 this region frequently and burns the shoots while still only a 

 few feet high, but the stump, gnarled, charred and full of pitch, 

 continues to live. Some of the stumps appear to be more than 



* The term " she-pine," or " she-pitch-pine," is also applied to Pinus heterophylla, which grows in 

 the region of the Gulf of Mexico. In the language of the natives, the prefix "she" indicates not sex but 

 inferiority and imperfection. P. heterophylla has been regarded by the lumbermen as a tree of very 

 inferior quality and cf little value in comparison to the true southern pitch-pine, P . palustris . In the 

 same way the term " she balsam-fir " is applied to Abies fraseri, a small, short-lived tree which inhabits 

 only the high slopes of the Alleghany Mountains in Carolina and Tennessee. For the same reason the 

 adjective "bastard" is often applied to trees. 



