374 PINUS EIGIDA. 



above the base, light orange-brown;* scales oblong-cnneate, the apophysis 

 rhomboidal with a transverse keel and short pyramidal umbo 

 terminating in a short, sharp prickle. 



Pinus rigida, Miller, Diet. ed. VIII. JSTo. 10 (1768). Lambert, Genus Finns, I. 

 tt. 18, 19 (1803). Michaux, Hist. Arb. Amer. 89, t. 8 i!810). London, Arb' et 

 Frut. Brit. IV. 2239, with figs. Forbes, Pinet. Wobnrn, 41, t. 13. Link in 

 Linnpea, XV. 504. Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 447. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. 

 XVI. 394. Hoopes, Evergreens, 119. Sargent, Garden and Forest, IV. 397 ; and 

 Silva N. Amer. XI. 115, t. 579. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 266, with fig. Masters 

 in Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 239. And others. 



Ene-. and Amer. Pitch Pine. Fr. Pin resineux. Germ. Pechkiefer, Steifekiefer. 



var. serotina. 



Leaves longer, on strong shoots occasionally in fascicles of four five ; 

 staminate flowers larger, cones more elongated, often remaining closed for 

 several years. 



P. rigida serotina, Engelmann, Trans. St. Louis Acad. IV. 183. Hoopes, 

 Evergreens, 120. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 269. P. serotina, Michanx, Hist. Arb. 

 Amer. 86 t. 7. Sargent., Silva N". Amer. XI. 119, t. 580. 



Pinus rigida is common along the valley of the river St. John, 

 New Brunswick, to the northern shores of Lake Ontario whence it 

 spreads southwards through the Atlantic States to Georgia and 

 Florida with a westerly extension into West Virginia and Kentucky, 

 growing generally in dry sandy soil, or less frequently in damp cold 

 swamps ; it is abundant on the Atlantic coast south of Boston, 

 forming extensive forests in New Jersey and on the Delaware 

 peninsula. As a timber tree P. rigida is almost worthless ; the wood 

 is coarse-grained, knotty and mostly of small scantling, and is used 

 chiefly for fuel and for the manufacture of charcoal, although 

 formerly much used in New England for building purposes before a 

 cheaper means of transport rendered the more valuable timber of the 

 southern Pines available. Its fuel value is, however, unsurpassed by 

 any tree in the northern forest, and thousands of acres of poor 

 sterile lands in the north-eastern States on which no other tree can 

 exist, have been covered with it at a comparatively trifling cost.t 



At least three distinct species of Pinus are called Pitch Pines in* 

 North America, the western, P. ponderosa, the southern, P. palustris, 

 and the northern, P. rigida, the subject of the present notice which is 

 also known as the Pitch Pine in Great Britain. In the last named case 

 the vernacular name is misleading ; the resinous products of P. rigida 

 formerly furnished quantities of turpentine and tar of some commercial 

 importance before the richer and superior supply of the southern Pine 

 Barrens were worked ; ' and the valuable timber used in this country as 

 Pitch Pine is obtained not from P. rigida but from P. palustris. 



* The variability in the size and shape of the cones of Pinus rigida is very great. 

 Mr. Thomas Meehan, of Philadelphia, once gathered a series of these cones in the neighbour- 

 hood of Hammongton, New Jersey ; some were four inches long and almost round, others 

 four inches long and not two inches wide ; some were flat at the base and would stand almost 

 upright, others were rounded and would roll over like marbles ; some were not more than an 

 inch long and yet bore perfect seeds ; some had very narrow scales, others very broad ones. 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1883. 



t Garden and Forest, IV. 397. 



