368 2 Trees and How to Know Them 



wings, but they reproduce poorly. Those that find moist, shady 

 conditions have the best chance of survival. 



Useful Hemlock Bark: The thin brownish-red to purplish rough 

 bark of the eastern hemlock is rich in tannin. Long ago the 

 Indians used this as a curative for sores and burns. For many years 

 it was the basis of our tanning industry and in some places tannin 

 is still used for this purpose. It not only preserves the leather but 

 gives it an attractive reddish tone. Hemlock wood is used chiefly 

 in making pulp for wrapping paper and newsprint. Hemlock 

 poison, notorious in ancient times, is not derived from this tree 

 but from herbs. 



PINESMAJESTIC TREES 



Some pine trees reach a height of two hundred feet and 

 even more. An age of two hundred years is not unusual, and the 

 sturdiness of pine wood makes it particularly suitable for the 

 masts of ships. And pines are handsome too. Branches of the white 

 pine make especially graceful decorations. If you look at them 

 closely you will see that this graceful quality derives from their 

 length and also from the way that the needles are attached to the 

 branches in bundles. 



Needles The Key to Identification: The pines can generally be 

 distinguished from other evergreens by their longer needles. The 

 grouping of the needles provides a key to the various species 

 because the number varies from one type of pine to another. For 

 example, on all true white pines there are five needles to a 

 bundle; the pitch, red, and ponder osa pines generally have three; 

 and the pifion and lodgepole pines have needles grouped in pairs. 

 White pine needles are long, soft and pliable; those of the pitch 

 pine are stiff and coarse. 



The shape of pine needles is such that the wind blowing 

 through them makes the soft sighing sound that we like to fancy 

 as whispering. The "whispering pines" and other cone-bearing 

 evergreens were growing on earth long before the more modern 

 type of tree the deciduous or "leaf-dropping" kind, which sheds 



