Pond Pine 



31 



Pitch Pine. 



yellow, finally dark grayish brown, and roughened by the persistent bases of the 

 bud-scales; branch-buds ovoid or ovoid-oblong, narrowed and sharp at the tip, the 

 scales loose, dark brown, and shining. Leaves in sheathed fascicles of 3, bright 

 green, rather stout and stiff, 6 to 12 cm. long, closely and sharply toothed and 

 tapering to a thick tip, the stomata sunken, in many rows on all 3 faces, contain- 

 ing 3 to 7 resin-ducts and 2 fibrovascular bun- 

 dles ; they are in rather spreading tufts and per- 

 sist for two or three years. The flowers appear 

 in the spring; the staminate, in short crowded 

 clusters, are cyhndric, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. long, anthers 

 yellow. The pistillate flowers are lateral, more 

 or less clustered, short-stalked, subglobose, about 

 4 mm. long, the scales light green with a reddish 

 tint at the contracted, slightly spreading tip. 

 The cones, which reach maturity by the second 

 autumn, are nearly sessile, ovoid to globose, 4 

 to 7 cm. long, light brown, opening and shedding 

 their seed during the autumn and winter, usually 

 persisting on the branches for ten or more years. 

 The scales are thin and flat, prominently ridged 

 with a dark knob and armed with a stiff recurved 

 prickle on the exposed end, reddish on the unexposed surfaces; seed somewhat 

 angled, oblong, 4 to 6 mm. long; wing about 8 mm. long; cotyledons 4 to 6. 



The wood is soft, weak, coarse-grained and resinous, bright brown or reddish 

 with broad resin bands; its specific gravity is about 0.51. It is quite durable; 

 sometimes sawn into lumber and also used for railroad ties, construction timbers, 

 fuel, and charcoal. It was formerly one of the chief sources of turpentine, but 

 has been superseded by the more productive Long-leaf pine. Its adaptabiHty to 

 poor soils and its rapid growth thereon make this a most valuable tree for the 

 reforesting of the poor, womout or neglected lands of mountain sides. 



Shoots growing from cut stumps sometimes bear many primary leaves with 

 the secondary fascicled ones in their axils. 



It is known by many names, such as Hard pine, Long-leaved pine, Longschat 

 pine. Yellow pine. Black pine. Black Norway pine. Rigid pine. Sap pine, and 

 Torch pine. 



23. POND PINE Pinus serotina Michaux 



A tree of the sandy swamps of the coastal plain from Virginia to Florida, at- 

 taining a maximum height of 25 meters, with a trunk diameter of 9 dm. 



The trunk is short, its branches stout, often more or less pendulous at the 

 ends, usually forming a round-topped tree. The bark is up to 18 mm. thick, 

 irregularly and shallowly fissured into small plates with thin, close, dark reddish 

 brown scales. The twigs are slender, glabrous, dark green, soon becoming dull 



