268 FAMILIAR TREES AND THEIR LEAVES. 



building, etc. The grain of the wood is very beauti- 

 ful, and shows long streaks of deep, gold-ocher color, 



Yellow Pine. 



rather more delicate and less ruddy than that of 

 Georgia pine. The tree has a handsome figure, with 

 regular branches, and soft, slender needles which 

 grow thickly at the ends of the branchlets. It is 

 one of the most ornamental members of the pine 

 family. 



The needles, two and a half to five inches long, 

 grow two and occasionally three in a bunch ; they 

 are roundish, slender, and dark green. The trunk 

 bark is gray brown, and the cones (the smallest ones 

 of the American pines), barely two inches long, have 

 rather small, weak prickles at the tips of the scales. 



The yellow pine is common in dry or sandy soil 

 from Staten Island, ~N. Y., southward to Florida, and 

 southwestward from southern Indiana to southeastern 

 Kansas and Texas. 



