274. PlNUS TAEDA LOBLOLLY PlNE. 49 



274. PINUS TAEDA, L. 

 LOBLOLLY PINE. OLD-FIELD PINE. ROSEMARY PINE. 



Ger., Rosmarin-Fichte. Fr., Pin de Romarin. Sp., Romero en Pino. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves in clusters of 3, with close persistent sheaths, rather 

 slender and stiff, dark green, 6-9 in. long, with large stomata on each face and two fibro- 

 vascular bundles. Flowers staminate yellow, crowded; pistillate solitary or few together, 

 lateral (below the apex of growing shoot) yellow, short-stalked. Cones 3-5 in. long, 

 lateral spreading, subsessile, reddish brown; scales thickened at apex with prominent 

 transverse ridges and spreading prickle. The cones often remain on the branches for a 

 year after liberating the seeds. These are mottled, about *4 in. long and provided with 

 a large wing broadest above the middle. 



The Yellow Pine is a large tree, for the Atlantic States, when of its 

 greatest dimensions, being 125 ft. (38 m.) or more in height, and 4 or 5 ft. 

 (1.25 m.) in thickness of trunk, but its average stature is considerably less. 

 When isolated, it develops an oblong or rounded pyramidal top, and the bark 

 of trunk is of a reddish brown color, fissured into large irregular plates and 

 flat ridges, which exfoliate in closely appressed, friable scales. 



HABITAT. From Delaware and extreme southern New Jersey, south- 

 ward throughout the maritime region and back to the foothills of the 

 Alleglianies to about the latitude of Tampa Bay, Florida, and westward to 

 the valley of the Colorado River in Texas. In the Mississippi Valley it 

 ranges northward to central Tennessee and central Arkansas. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. - - The wood of the Loblolly Pine seems to vary 

 considerably in quality in different localities. It is generally of rapid 

 growth, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, with broad resinous bands of 

 summer growth, and of a light pinkish brown color, with thick, yellowish 

 white sap-wood. The resin ducts are small, and the tree yields but little 

 turpentine when boxed. Specific Gravity, 0.5441 : Percentage of Ash, 0.26; 

 Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.5427; Coefficient of Elasticity, 112847 

 Modulus of Rupture, 883; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 427; Re- 

 sistance to Indentation, 107; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 33.91. 



USES. --The wood is manufactured into lumber for general construction 

 purposes, interior finishing, boxes, etc. 



GENUS PICEA, LINK. 



Leave* evergreen, scattered (not clustered at the base), sessile, jointed upon a persistent 

 base, short ( y 2 to 1% in-) needle-shaped, 4-angled, pointing every way and all of one kind. 

 Floirers appear in spring, monoecious: the fiteriJc in the axils of the leaves of the preceding 



