286 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



B. E. Femow says: "What the apple is among the fruits, what 

 the oak is among the broad-leaved trees of the temperate zone, 

 the pines are among the conifers, excelling all other genera in this 

 most important family in number of species, in fields of distri- 

 bution, in extent of area occupied, in usefulness and importance to 

 the human race," 



For whatever reasons we may revere the pines at least the fact 

 that they are connecting links with the past attracts us to them, 

 Mrs. Anna Botsford Comstock expresses this appeal most pleas- 

 ingly. "Their dark foliage outlined against wintry skies appeals 

 to the imagination, and well it may, for it represents an ancient 

 tree-costume. The pines are among the most ancient of trees, 

 and were the contemporaries of those plants which were put to 

 sleep, during the Devonian age, in the coal beds. It is because 

 the pines and the other evergreens belong essentially to earlier 

 ages, when the climate was far different than it is today, that they 

 do not shed their leaves like the more recent, deciduous trees. 

 They stand among us, representatives of an ancient race, and 

 wrap their green foliage about them as an Indian sachem does his 

 blankets, in calm disregard of modem fashion of attire." 



Six hundred species and varieties have been described and 

 named in the genus Pinus. They are distributed in vast forests 

 over the northern half of the globe, reaching into the tropics by 

 following mountain chains. The East and West Indian Islands 

 have each their own pines. Out of the hundreds of named kinds 

 about eighty distinct species are now recognized. Half of this 

 number are found in North America. Forests of pines still cover 

 mountain slopes on the western and northern parts of the con- 

 tinent. Limibering has been going on for a century in the Eastern 

 States ; more recently the Great Lakes region and the pine forests 

 of the Southern States have been exploited to supply the demand 

 for pine. 



The foremost Itmiber trees in this country, pines have still other 

 important uses. They offer a great variety of trees for protection 

 and ornamental planting. Wind-breaks from the seashore to the 

 semi-arid prairies, from the low seaboard plain to the mountain's 

 crests, may all be of pine. Arid soil or rich, cold or warm climate, 

 swamp and desert sand — all offer congenial conditions for some 

 native pine. In the parks of cities, in private grounds of the rich 

 and the poor, pines are planted for shade and shelter and oma- 



