CHAPTER XXXIII. 



GYMNOSPERMS. 

 The white pine. 



607. General aspect of the white pine. The white pine 

 (Firms strobus) is found in the Eastern United States. In 

 favorable situations in the forest it reaches a height of about 50 

 meters (about 160 feet), and the trunk a diameter of over i 

 meter. In well-formed trees the trunk is straight and towering; 

 the branches where the sunlight has access and the trees are not 

 crowded, or are young, reaching out in graceful arms, form a 

 pyramidal outline to the tree. In old and dense forests the lower 

 branches, because of lack of sunlight, have died away, leaving 

 tall, bare trunks for a considerable height. 



608. The long shoots of the pine. The branches are of two kinds. Those 

 which we readily recognize are the long branches, so called because the 

 growth in length each year is considerable. The terminal bud of the long 

 branches, as well as of the main stem, continues each year the growth of the 

 main branch or shoot; while the lateral long branches arise each year from 

 buds which are crowded close together around the base of the terminal bud. 

 The lateral long branches of each year thus appear to be in a whorl. The 

 distance between each false whorl of branches, then, represents one year's 

 growth in length of the main stem or long branch. 



609. The dwarf shoots of the pine. The dwarf branches are all lateral 

 on the long branches, or shoots. They are scattered over the year's growth, 

 and each bears a cluster of five long, needle-shaped, green leaves, which 

 remain on the tree for several years. At the base of the green leaves are 

 a number of chaff-like scales, the previous bud scales. While the dwarf 

 branches thus bear green leaves, and scales, the long branches bear only 

 thin scale-like leaves which are not green. 



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