Notes on some of our Native Plants. 21 



possesses so many advantages of attraction. Constantly in 

 verdure, and flourishing in compact and comparatively close 

 proximity to each other, a young growth of white pines could 

 not escape notice. Whorl above whorl in regular succession, 

 each marking the annual upward increase, the bright green 

 bark, almost entirely free from any mossy or parasitical ad- 

 herents of lichens or such minute vegetation, the slender, ta- 

 per, and graceful leading-shoot, the long needle-shaped leaves, 

 with the aspect of healthy vigor, contrasting strangely with 

 the nature of the soil, — all these cause the white pine to be 

 equally attractive, whether under cultivation or in natural 

 growth. It is, accordingly, becoming a popular tree for plant- 

 ing in rows on the borders of parks or pleasure grounds, gar- 

 dens needing protection from the winds, and for covering light 

 and sandy tracts with a most valuable produce. 



As the growth of the white pine copses or native woods 

 increases, there is observable that struggling for possession 

 which the laws of nature seem to dictate for self-preservation. 

 A thinning process goes on rapidly through the greater vigor 

 of some of the trees overtopping and burying in shade the 

 others, which slowly die, like the lower whorls of branches 

 on the larger trees themselves. A young growth and an old 

 forest scarcely seem identical in species, — the first intertangled 

 with horizontal whorls of pliable branches, the latter resem- 

 bling some stately columns of some grand building, with 

 sighing or sweetly sounding aisles, echoing with the music of 

 the solitary thrush, as it pours forth its mellifluous song from 

 the topmost twig of the loftiest and most towering of the 

 growth. As the trees grow older, their trunks become more 

 rugged in bark, and the lichens predominate over other para- 

 sitical forms. In the chinks, are purple Jungermannias, with 

 occasional tufts of Orthotrichum ; at the base, are dot-like 

 Lecideas, and disk-shaped Lecanoras, and wart-like Verruca- 

 rias. A few of the stellate forms of Parmelia may be found 

 here and there ; and, perhaps, a waving tuft of gray U'snea 

 is occasionally pendent from the dead lower limbs. 



The white pine, called by botanists Pinus ^Strobus, is con- 

 sidered in England a fine tree, being introduced into that 

 country from Canada upwards of a century ago, and known 

 under the title of its first propagator there, as the Weymouth 



