PINE 



PINE 



2627 



the important place in the household of civilized men; 

 for not only do they furnish in a number of species the 

 most satisfactory qualities of wood for structural pur- 

 poses, but their frugality in regard to soil conditions 

 will preserve them a place as wood-producers in many 

 of the poor sites, when the lands fit for agricultural 

 use have all been turned over to food-production. 



Among the seventy or more well-distinguished species 

 over 600 species and varieties of Pinus have been 

 described all inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, 

 ranging from the arctics through ^plains and moun- 

 tains to near the equator, occurring in the tropics 

 at least on high mountains, a variety of adaptation, 

 of form, of usefulness, may be found to satisfy every 

 requirement; and since more than half the number of 

 species (about forty) are indigenous to North Amer- 

 ica or the United States, it is hardly necessary to go out 

 of this general region for plant material. 



For economic importance, as well as for a combi- 

 nation of points of excellence in all directions, orna- 

 mental as well as useful, rapidity and quantity of 

 production and adaptability to climate and soil, the 

 chief place belongs to the white pine (P. Strobus), and 

 next in importance stands the longleaf pine (P. palus- 

 tris) of the southern states. The red pine (P. resinosa), 

 the shortleaf (P. echinata), the Loblolly (P. Taedd), with 

 the Cuban pine (P. caribsea), add their stores to the 

 enormous quantities furnished annually by the first 

 and second. In the western mountains the bull pine 

 (P. ponderosa), the sugar pine (P. Lambertiana), and 

 the silver pine (P. manticola) are very large timber pines; 

 and in Mexico P. Ayacahuite replaces the white pine, 

 and P. arizonica and P. montezum^e are the important 

 yellow pines. In the Philippine Archipelago one species, 

 P. insularis, forms important mountain forests. In 

 Europe the Scotch pine (P. sylvestris) furnishes the 

 bulk of supplies, with P. nigra in the more southern 

 countries. In Japan and northern China P. densiflora 

 and P. Thunbergii and in the Himalayas P. excdsa, 

 and P. longifolia are the important species. 



Besides the timber, several of the species furnish 

 from their resinous contents naval stores, turpentine, 

 tar, and pitch, the bulk of which is now still derived from 

 the native longleaf pine. Pine wool is made from the 

 leaves of this and other species, essential oils are distilled 

 from leaves and young shoots and used medicinally, and 

 the seeds of the nut pines are used for food and flavors. 

 While the economic importance of the genus can hardly 

 be overrated, the ornamental value is undoubtedly less 

 than that of other genera like the spruces and firs. 

 Nevertheless, at least interest and picturesqueness, if 

 not beauty and symmetry of form, attach to a large 

 number of species. 



Choice of material for planting with such a wealth of 

 species is difficult; yet climatic limitations reduce the 

 number that may be grown within each climatic zone, 

 and further assistance in the choice may be found hi the 

 fact that the botanical division of the species into three 

 groups; viz., white pines, yellow pines (so called from 

 the color of the wood), and nut pines, denotes at the 

 same tune differences of habit and form. 



In no other group, perhaps, is it so necessary to keep 

 in mind that form and habit change through the differ- 

 ent periods of life from the juvenile through the adoles- 

 cent to the virile and senile stages of development; 

 while symmetrical and pleasing in their youth and grand 

 or picturesque in their age, in their intermediate stages 

 the trees may be straggling and unsightly. Starting in 

 its youth with the pyramidal aspiring habit of all the 

 conifers, the shaft dominating over the branch system 

 and the latter surrounding the former in regular whorls, 

 later on the symmetry is disturbed and finally the 

 towering old pine may have its bole split up into many 

 stout branches and the crown may have broadened and 

 flattened or rounded off in the umbrella-like fashion 

 which the stone pine (P. Pinea) exhibits so strikingly 



in the Italian landscape. This flattening of crown is 

 characteristic of most yellow pines, while the pinons or 

 nut pines have a tendency to the broom-like or apple- 

 tree appearance. Of the eastern species, the white pines 

 alone preserve to some extent the conical habit of the 

 crown in imitation of the spruces with more or less 

 symmetrical horizontally spreading branches, which 

 render them pleasing objects throughout all periods of 

 life. On the Pacific Coast a number of species preserve 

 the conical form. 



In the choice and combination of plant material it 

 should be kept in mind that the pines are essentially 

 light-needing species, hence do not bear overtopping or 

 crowding unless they have a chance by their rapid 

 growth in height to escape from the pressure of their 

 shade-making neighbors; the white pines, especially P. 

 Strobus with its denser foliage, are more tolerant of shade 

 than others; the dwarf P. montana is also tolerably 

 shade-enduring. 



In each of the three groups there are rapid growers 

 (in height) and slow growers, although all are slow dur- 

 ing the first two to seven years. 



The common white pine (P. Strobus') and the Cuban 

 pine (P. carib&a), with the European, Scotch, and 

 Austrian pines, are good examples of the first class, 

 making under favorable conditions annual shoots of 

 1 to 2 feet for a number of years; while the Swiss stone 

 pine (P. Cembra) and other pines of high altitudes, like 

 P. flexilis and P. dVbicavlis, are examples of slow 

 growers. There are persistent growers reaching great 

 heights, and laggards, remaining dwarfs or medium- 

 sued trees; again the king of pines, the common white 

 pine, and its giant congener the sugar pine, with the 

 bull pine in favorable situations, take first rank, the 

 first with a maximum height of 160 feet and more, the 

 last with over 200 feet, while many of the so-called 

 scrub pines, like P. virginiana, P. serotina,P. Banksiana, 

 the Alpine white pines, P. flexilis, P. aristata, P. Pence, 

 P. pungens, P. densiflora, and most nut pines reach 

 rarely over 40 feet; some, like P. koraiensis, P. Bungeana, 

 P. montana, with several of the nurserymen's vari- 

 eties, remain actually dwarfs and maintain a compact 

 bush-like appearance for a long time. 



In regard to foliage, quite a large variety can be 

 secured. For grace and elegance nothing better again 

 than the five-needled silver-lined white pine can be 

 suggested, although P. excdsa from the Himalayas, 

 with its slenderer and longer branches and more 

 drooping foliage, and the dwarfs P. Peuce from Mace- 

 donia and P. koraiensis, with then- denser and more 

 compact crowns, and some others of the white pine 

 tribe, may vie with it. Among the yellow pines, the 

 native almost entirely overlooked, P. glabra, deserves 

 mention in this connection, where the climate permits 

 its use, as well as the interesting sand pine, P. dausa. 



For richness, fulness, and vigor of foliage, the red 

 pine (P. resinosa) outranks even the much-planted 

 more somber Austrian pine, and for interest in devel- 

 opment nothing can compete with the longleaf pine 

 (P. palustris). With its needles, which in young speci- 

 mens exceed a foot' in length, surrounding in dense 

 graceful tufts the big silvery buds at the tip of the 

 candelabra-like branches, P. palnstris offers a most 

 striking appearance. Unfortunately, it is not adapted 

 for planting north of 32. 



The thin, grayish, short foliage of the frugal Bank- 

 sian pine and of several other of the scrub pines, and 

 the stouter, also grayish, foliage of the Scotch pine, make 

 a pleasing color contrast against the somber dark back- 

 ground of spruces and firs, while the short stiff needles 

 of the nut pine, P. edidis, and the interesting one-needle 

 pine (P. monophytta) resemble the spruce foliage. Color 

 of bark varying in species from silvery gray through 

 red and yellow tints to almost black, and character or 

 size of cones from the diminutive globose forms of 

 P. contorta to the long pendulous cones of the sugar 



