342 PINUS MITIS. 



Pinus mitis. 



A tree with a slightly tapering trunk 80 120 feet high, but 

 frequently much less, with a short, pyramidal, truncate head of 

 comparatively slender branches that depend more or less. Bark roughish, 

 fissured into irregular plates. Branchlets stout, at first pale green or 

 pale violet and glaucescent, changing with age to reddish brown. 

 Buds ovoid, obtuse, about 0'25 inch long, with small orange-brown, 

 imbricated perulae. Leaves gemmate, frequently ternate on young trees, 

 persistent two three years, flexible, slender with a cartilaginous tip 

 and serrulate margins, 2*5 4 inches long, grass-green ; basal sheath at 

 first white, 0'5 inch long, much shorter and lacerated the second year. 

 Staminate flowers in short crowded clusters, oblong-cylindric, about 0'75 

 inch long, with pale pink anthers and surrounded at the base by 

 ovate, acute, involucral bracts in about three series. Cones in pairs 

 or in clusters of three four, ovoid or cylindric-ovoid, shortly stalked, 

 1*5 2 '5 inches long and a little more than an inch in diameter near 

 the base; scales obovate-cuneate with but a slightly thickened apophysis 

 terminating in a transverse ridge with a short pale, pyramidal umbo. 

 Seeds prism-shaped, with a pale brown fragile wing about 0*5 inch 

 long. 



Pinus mitis, Michaux, Hist. Arb. Anier. I. 52, t. 3 (1810). London, Arb. et 

 Frut. Brit. -IV. 2195, with figs. Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 167. Carriers, Traite 

 Conif. ed. II. 472. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 243. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 216. 

 Masters in Journ. R. Hort. Soc XIV. 233. And others. 



P. echinata, Miller, Diet. ed. VIII. No. 12 (1768).* Sargent, Silva of N. Amer. 

 XI. 143, t. 587. 



P. variabilis, Lambert, Genus Pinus, I. 22, t 15 (1803). Pursh, Fl Amer. 643. 



Eng. Soft-leaved Pine. Amer. Yellow Pine, Short-leaved Pine, Spruce Pine. 

 Fr. Pin jaune, Pin-Sapin. Germ. Glatte-Kiefer, Fichten-Kiefer, Gelb-Kiefer. 



finus mitis is the most widely distributed of the Pines of eastern 

 North America. From New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania it 

 spreads southwards to northern Florida and westwards to the 

 Mississippi river. " West of the Mississippi river it is most 

 abundant and attains its noblest size, often forming pure forests 

 over great areas in its range from north-eastern Texas and western 

 Louisiana to south-western Illinois." t 



The Short-leaved or Spruce Pine is one of the most valuable timber 

 trees of the eastern and Mississippi States; the wood is heavy, hard, 

 strong and coarse-grained, but varies considerably in quality and 

 in the thickness of its sapwood ; it is used for building purposes 

 generally, also for cabinet work, the interior finish of houses, car- 

 building, railway ties, etc. Professor Sargent states that Pinus mitis 

 spreads rapidly over abandoned fields in the southern and Gulf States, 



* Pinus echinata is by far the oldest published name, but it was not taken up by any 

 author of note till the publication of Vol. XI. of Professor Sargent's Silva of North 

 America in 1897. There is some uncertainty respecting the identification of Lambert's 

 P. variabilis, some authors referring it to P. inops, others to P. mitis. As Michaux's name 

 has now been in continuous use for nearly a century, the great inconvenience of relinquishing 

 it is sufficiently obvious. 



t Silva of North America, loc. cit. supra. 



