THE CONEBEARERS 



WHITE PINE (Pinus strobus, Linn.). 100 to 125 feet. 

 Handsome evergreen tree, the central shaft bearing regular 

 whorls of horizontal branches, five in a whorl. Branches 

 smooth, ending in flexible twigs clothed with blue-green plumes 

 of foliage. Bark gray, furrowed between broad, scaly ridges. 

 Wood soft, fine-grained, resinous, creamy white, easy to work. 

 Buds scaly, set in 5's around a stronger bud, the leader, that 

 prolongs the branch. Leaves 3 to 5 inches long, needle-like, 

 in bundles of five, in a basal sheath of thin scales. Flowers 

 monoecious: staminate, clustered catkins, discharging yellow 

 pollen dust in June; pistillate pinkish or purple cones, single 

 or paired, near ends of shoots, erect. Fruit cones, 5 to 8 

 inches long, with thin, unarmed scales, pendent, opening at 

 end of second summer to release two winged seeds under each 

 scale. Dist. : Newfoundland to Manitoba; south to Kentucky, 

 Tennessee, and Georgia. Once the chief lumber tree of the 

 country, but now scarce, from the cutting of virgin forests. 

 Much planted as an ornamental conifer. 



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