PINE 



PINE 



1341 



species (about 40) aie indigenous to North America or 

 the United States, it is hardly necessary to go out of 

 our own country for plant material. 



For economic importance as well as a combination of 

 points of excellence in all directions, ornamental as well 

 as useful, rapidity and quantity of production and 

 adaptability to climate and soil, the chief place belongs 

 to our White Pine (P. Strobus), and next in importance 

 stands the Longleaf Pine (P. palustris) of our southern 

 states. The Red Pine (P. resinosa), the Shortleaf (P. 

 echinafa), the Loblolly (P. Tceda), with the Cuban Pine 

 {P. Cubensls), a.dd their stores to the enormous quanti 

 ties furnished annually by the first and second. In our 

 western mountains the Bull Pine (P. ponderosd), the 

 Sugar Pine (P. Lambert lana), and the Silver Pine (P. 

 monticola) are our large timber Pines; and in Mexico P. 

 Ai/iicohuite replaces our White Pine, and P. Arizonica 

 and Miinteznmie are the important yellow Pines. In our 

 Philippine possessions one species, Pinus insularis, 

 forms important mountain forests. In Europe the Scotch 

 Pine (P. syh-estris) furnishes the bulk of supplies, 

 with P. Laricio in the more southern countries. In 

 Japan and northern China P. densiflora and TJiioibergi 

 and in the Himalayas P. excelsa and lonqifolla are the 

 important species. 



Besides the timber, several of the species furnish from 

 their resinous contents naval stores, turpentine, tar and 

 pitch, the bulk of which is now still derived from our 





■M0i 



1807. Pinus ponderosa. 

 Young trees in Colorado. 



own Longleaf Pine. Pine wool is made from the leaves 

 of this and other species, essential oils are distilled 

 from leaves and young shoots and used medicinally, and 

 the seeds of the Nut Pines are used for food and flavors. 

 While the economic importance of the genus can hardly 

 be overrated, the ornamental value is undoubtedly less 

 than that of other genera like the spruces and firs. 

 Nevertheless, at least interest and picturesqueness, if 

 not beauty and symmetry of form, attach to a large 

 number of species. 



Choice of material for planting with such a wealth of 

 species is difficult; yet climatic limitations reduce the 

 number that may be grown within each climatic zone, 

 and further assistance in the choice maybe found in the 

 fact that the botanical division of the species into three 

 groups; viz.. White Pines, Yellow Pines (so called from 

 the color of the wood) and Nut Pines, denotes at the 

 same time differences of habit and form. 



In no other group, perhaps, is it so necessary to keep in 

 mind that form and habit change through the different 

 periods of life from the juvenile through the adolescent 

 to the virile and senile stages of development; while 

 symmetrical and pleasing in their youth and grand or 

 picturesque in their age, in their intermediate stages 

 the trees may be straggling and unsightly. Starting in 

 its youth with the pyramidal aspiring habit of all the 



conifers, the shaft dominating over the branch system 

 and the latter surrounding the former in regular whorls, 

 later on the symmetry is disturbed and finally the 

 towering old Pine may have its bole split up into many 

 stout branches and the crown may have broadened and 

 flattened or rounded off in the umbrella-like fashion 

 which the Stone Pine (P. Pinea) exhibits so strikingly 

 in the Italian landscape. This flattening of crown is 

 characteristic of most Yellow Pines, while the piiions or 

 Nut Pines have a tendency to the broom-like or apple 

 tree appearance. Of our eastern species, the White Pines 

 alone preserve to some extent the conical habit of the 

 crown in imitation of the spruces with more or less 

 symmetrical horizontally spreading branches, which 

 render them pleasing objects throughout all periods of 

 life. On the Pacific coast a number of species preserve 

 the conical form. 



In the choice and combination of plant material we 

 should keep in mind that the Pines are essentially 

 light-needing species, hence do not bear overtopping or 

 crowding unless they have a chance by their rapid 

 growth in height to escape from the pressure of their 

 shade-making neighbors; the White Pines, especially P. 

 Strobus with its denser foliage, is more tolerant of shade 

 than others; the dwarf P. montana is also tolerably 

 shade-enduring. 



In each of the three groups there are rapid growers 

 (in height) and slow growers, although all are slow dur- 

 ing the first 2-7 years. 



Our common White Pine (P. Strobus) and the Cuban 

 Pine (P. Ciibensis), with the European, Scotch and 

 Austrian Pines, are good examples of the first class, 

 making under favorable conditions annual shoots of 1-2 

 ft. for a number of years; while the Swiss Stone Pine 

 (P. C'embra) and other Pines of high altitudes, like P. 

 flexilis and albicauUs, are examples of slow growers. 

 There are persistent growers reaching great heights, 

 and laggards, remaining dwarfs or medium-sized trees; 

 again our king of Pines, the common White Pine, and 

 its giant congener the Sugar Pine, with the Bull Pine in 

 favorable situations, take first rank, the first with a 

 maximum height of 160 ft. and more, the last with 

 over 200 ft., while many of the so-called Scrub Pines, 

 like P. Virginiana, serofina, divaricata, etc., the Alpine 

 White Pines P. flexilis, arisfata, Pence, punqens, 

 densiflora, and most Nut Pines reach rarely over 40 ft.; 

 some, like P. Koraiensis, Bungeana, montana, with sev- 

 eral of the nurserymen's varieties, remaining actually 

 dwarfs and maintaining a compact, bushlike appearance 

 for a long time. 



In regard to foliage, quite a large variety can be had. 

 For grace and elegance nothing better again than our 

 five-needled silver-lined White Pine can be suggested, 

 although P. excelsa from the Himalayas, with its 

 slenderer and longer branches and more drooping foli- 

 age, and the dwarfs P. Pence from Macedonia and P. 

 Koraiensis, with their denser and more compact 

 crowns, and some others of the White Pine tribe, may 

 vie with it. Among the Yellow Pines our own almost 

 entirely overlooked P. glabra deserves mention in this 

 connection, where the climate permits its use, as well 

 as the interesting Sand Pine, P. clausa. 



For richness, fulness and vigor of foliage, our Red 

 Pine (P. resinosa) outranks even the much-planted 

 more somber Austrian Pine, and for interest in devel- 

 opment nothing can compete with our Longleaf Pine 

 (P. paliistris). With its needles, which in young speci- 

 mens exceed a foot in length, surrounding in dense, 

 graceful tufts the big silvery buds at the tip of the 

 candelabra-like branches, P. palustris offers a most, 

 striking appearance. Unfortunately, it is not adapted 

 for planting north of the 32d degree. 



The thin, grayish, short foliage of the frugal Bank- 

 sian Pine and of several other of our Scrub Pines, and 

 the stouter also grayish foliage of the Scotch Pine, make 

 a pleasing color contrast against the somber dark back- 

 ground of spruces and firs, while the short, stiff needles 

 of the Nut Pine P. edulis and the interesting one-needle 

 Pine (P. monophylla) resemble the spruce foliage. Color 

 of bark varying in species from silvery gray through 

 red and yellow tints to almost black, and character or 

 size of cones from the diminutive globose forms of 

 P. contorta to the long, pendulous cones of the Sugar- 



