PINUS BANKSIANA. 315 



Pinus Banksiana. 



A tree of variable size and habit according to the locality in which 

 it is growing, from a straggling shrub 3 5 feet to a tall tree 60 70 

 feet high with a trunk 2 feet in diameter covered with dark grey 

 bark. In Great Britain a slender tree 26 30 feet high, the trunk 

 covered with light greyish brown bark fissured into irregular thin 

 plates. Branches horizontal, ascending, or curved downwards ; branchlets 

 short, slender, and often curved ; buds cylindric, obtuse, 0'25 inch 

 long, light brown usually covered with a film of whitish resin. 

 Leaves geminate (in twos), regularly distributed over the shoot, 

 persistent four five years, semi-terete with a mucronate tip, obscurely 

 concave on the inner side, more or less twisted, about an inch long, 

 with a short lacerated basal sheath, dull dark green. Staminate 

 flowers in dense clusters, sub-cylindric, about 0'5 inch long, yellowish 

 brown. Cones ovoid-conic, sessile, erect, incurved, 1'5 2 inches long; 

 scales oblong-cuneate, the apical thickening rhomboidal with a transverse 

 ridge* and small, obtuse, central umbo. 



Pinus Banksiana, Lambert, Genus Finns, I. t. 3 (1803). London, Arb. et. 

 Frat. Brit. IV. 2190, with figs. Forbes, Pinet Woburn, 13, t. 3. Hooker, W. 

 Fl. Bot. Amer. II. 161. Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 485. Hoopes, Evergreens, 78. 

 Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 230. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 218. Maconn, Cat. Canad. 

 Plants, 468. Masters in Jonrn. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 221. And many others. 



P. rnpestris, Michaux, Hist. Arb. Amer. I. 49, t. 2 (1810). 



P. hndsonica, Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 380 (1868). 



P. divaricata, Sargent, Silva N. Amer. XL 147, t. 588 (1897). 



Eng. Sir Joseph Banks' Pine. Amer. Scrub Pine, Grey Pine, Jack Pine. 

 Germ. Strauchkiefer. 



Pinus Banksiana is distributed over an immense area in North 

 America. From its southern limit on the coast of Maine, at about 

 44 N. lat., it spreads northwards into Labrador and the Barren Lands 

 of Canada, and across the continent in a north-westerly direction as 

 far as the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and northwards 

 through the Mackenzie valley to the Arctic Circle. It is abundant 

 in the barren plains of Michigan, growing in places where no other 

 tree can live ; it often replaces along the northern States and adjacent 

 parts of the Dominion the more valuable Pines that have been 

 cleared by lumber-men or by forest fires. The kind of estimation 

 in which it is held in America finds expression in the vernacular 

 names given to it, as "Scrub Pine," "Jack Pine," etc. The wood 

 is used for little else than fuel. 



Pinus Banlisiana is worthless for the British Arboretum as it soon 

 becomes unshapely under the stimulus of the milder climate of this 

 country, and it is but rarely seen in other than botanic gardens. The 

 date of its introduction has not been recorded ; but Aiton states that 

 it was in cultivation prior to 1783.* The species was dedicated 

 by Mr. Lambert to Sir Joseph Banks, than whom no one more worthy 

 to be held in remembrance can be found in the annals of British 

 .science. 



* Hortus Kewensis, ed. II. Vol. V. p. 315. 



