SOME AMERICAN PINES 345 



12. P. ponderosa. Foliis ternis elongatis, strobilis subcylindraceis 

 deflexis; squamarum spinis reflexis vagina foliorum abbreviate. Sabine 

 in Trans. Hort. Soc. Vol. 



Flowers in April and May ; fruit perfect in September of the second 

 year. 



Leaves three in a sheath, slender, acute, rounded on the upper surface, 

 furrowed below, finely serrated, six to nine inches long. Vagina or 

 sheath half an inch long, entire at the end. Flower unknown. Cone 

 sessile, partly cylindrical, tapering to the point, slightly curved and bent 

 downwards, six to eight inches long, dark brown. Scale dilated in the 

 middle. Seeds about five lines long and three broad, oval, black, encircled 

 by the base of the wing, the inner side of the seed being nearly covered. 

 Wing elongated, blunt at the apex, fuliginous. 



Trees tall, straight, seldom divided by large branches, very elegant, 

 ninety to one hundred and thirty feet high ; sometimes exceeding four 

 feet in diameter, three feet above the ground, carrying their thickness 

 to a very great height, frequently measuring eighteen inches in diameter 

 at seventy feet, and not uncommon to see this without so much as a 

 branch of any description whatever. 



The wood is remarkably clean-grained, though somewhat coarse in 

 texture, smooth, heavy, reddish, works fine, and is impregnated with a 

 copious rosin. 



The bark is very smooth, tawny-red. This appears to be rapid- 

 growing, is highly ornamental, and may, though not so valuable as some, 

 be of importance. Like all the species of this genus which have plural 

 leaves, that inhabit the western parts of the continent of America, it never 

 grows in nor composes thick forests like the Abies section, but is found on 

 declivities of low hills and undulating grounds in unproductive sandy 

 soils in clumps, belts, or forming open woods, and in low, fertile, moist 

 soils totally disappears. This may have greater claims on our attention 

 than merely its beauty, for, in addition to its timber, a great portion of 

 turpentine could be extracted. 



The young trees are liable to injury by 1 which in many 

 places appears in such abundance on some trees as completely to 

 destroy them ere they reach 20 feet high. It is not confined to the 

 cleft or between the limbs and branches like Viscum on its various 

 supports, but spreads spontaneously over the young shoots, springing 

 from the base of the sheath, <,which with the bud scales and rosin 

 sufficiently protect the seeds until the insertion of the roots in the bark 

 takes place. Before the first season goes past the branch affected becomes 

 distorted, swollen to six or eight times the natural size, afterwards rough 

 and rotten, the rosin copiously flowing from the part affected until it 

 exhausts its supporter. Then, being deprived of its natural aliment, it 

 does not long outlive the tree. 



1 A blank is left here in the principal MS. and the other runs thus : " A singular 

 species of Viscum or mistletoe is found on this tree which grows so rapidly and in 

 such abundance that it in time completely destroys it. A second species of the 

 same genus is found on Pinus Banksiana west of the Rocky Mountains and more 

 sparingly in the valleys of that ridge." ED. 



