Handbook of Tkees of the Northern States and Canad.' 



19 



The Table-IMountain Pine deserves its name 

 from being tonfined in its natural distribution 

 mainly to tlu' dry gravelly table-lands and 

 slopes of tlie Appalachian Mts., though it is 

 found to be hardy and thrives well when 

 planted outside of this limited range — over 

 the middle and eastern states generally. To 

 the nortliward it is local in its distribution 

 and generally scattered among other trees 

 such as the Yellow. Pitch and Jersey Pines, 

 Oaks, Hickories, etc., but in the southern 

 Alleghenies it forms nearly exclusive forests 

 of considerable e.xtent. It rarely exceeds 60 

 or 70 ft. in height or 2 or 3 ft. in diameter of 

 trunk, and develops a wide rounded or often 

 irregular top. The bark of trunk is a dark 

 reddish brown color rough witii irregular scaly 

 plates and ridges. A character by which it is 

 readily distinguished from all other eastern 

 Pines is its massive cones armed with very 

 thick curved spines, more suggestive of 

 various species of the Pacific slope than are 

 those of any other eastern species. 



Its wood is light, soft, brittle, coarse-grained 

 and of a pale reddish brown color with thick 

 lighter sap-wood. A cubic foot, when abso- 

 lutely dry, weighs 30.75 lbs. It is little used 

 excepting for fuel and charcoal. i 



Leaves in crowded clusters of 2. 2-4 in. Ion',' 

 with short persistent sheaths, stotU, stiff, more or 

 less twisted, with 2 fibro-vascular luiiulli's and 

 resin-ducts in parenchyma ; branclilcts short, dark 

 brown and rough. Flowers: staminatf yellow, in 

 loose clusters ; the pistillate long-stalked, lateral 

 and generally in whorls of 2 to ."> or more. Coiks 

 short-ovoid, .".-4 in. long, lateral and in whorls 

 upon the hranchlet, oblique at base, sessile and 

 with scales, especially those of the outer side near 

 base, much thickened, with prominent transverse 

 ridge and armed with a strong Hat curved prickle : 

 seeds rounded triangular, nearly 14 in. long, and 

 with wings broadest near the center. 



1. .\. \V. 



XII 



298. 



