38 THE PINE-TREE, OR 



Mankind, pretty generally, are disposed to place the Oak at 

 the head of the vegetable kingdom, and it is crowned monarch of 

 the forest. 



I was reared among the noble Pines of Maine, nestled in my 

 cradle beneath their giant forms, and often has the sighing wind 

 made music that has calmed me to repose as it gently played 

 through their tasseled boughs. Often have I been filled with 

 awe as I gazed upon their massive trunks and raised my eye to 

 their cloud-swept tops. 



When a child, even, I could never read the following eulogy 

 on the Oak without a fit of jealousy : 



" The Oak for grandeur, strength, and noble size 

 Excels all trees which in the forest grow." 



Of the truth of this sentiment I could never feel persuaded ; in 

 fact, in only one particular is this true. In strength the Oak ex- 

 cels, but in towering grandeur and massive diameter the Pine 

 far exceeds the Oak, and indeed all other North American trees. 

 Properly there are but three species of the Pine. 1. The White 

 Pine. 2. Pitch Pine. 3. The Norway, or Red Pine, as it is 

 sometimes called.^ The Red Pine is remarkable for its tall 

 trunk ; it sometimes rises eighty feet before it puts out a limb. 

 I recollect cutting one on the Mattawamkeag River, which dis- 

 embogues into the Penobscot, eighty-two feet before reaching a 



* " With very few exceptions, the Pines are mono2cious (having the male 

 and female flowers on the same tree). The yellow pollen, which is very 

 abundant, often falls in such quantities upon the branches and leaves below, 

 and upon the neighboring plants, as to cover them ; and being as light and 

 fine as dust, it has been sometimes carried by the wind from a forest of Pines 

 and spread upon the ground at a great distance. This afFords a probable ex- 

 planation of the stories which have been told, and which have been regard- 

 ed with superstition or incredulity, of showers of sulphur." 



Lambert, describing the common Scotch Fir, says, " The pollen is some- 

 times in spring carried away by the wind in such quantities as to alarm the 

 ignorant with the notion of its raining brimstone." 



