Short-leaved Pine 



33 



The trunk is tall and somewhat tapering, the branches rather slender, slightly 

 pendulous, forming a rounded or conic top. The bark is often 2.5 cm. thick, 

 coarsely fissured into large irregular plates with close reddish scales. The twigs 

 are stout, very brittle, pale green to violet with a bluish bloom, becoming dark 

 purplish red, finally darker and scaly. The branch-buds are ovoid, gradually nar- 

 rowed to a blunt tip, the scales lanceolate, pointed, and dark brown. The leaves 

 are in sheathed clusters of 2, and often in 3's, dark bluish green, soft and flexible, 

 7 to 13 cm. long, about 1.5 mm. thick, minutely and closely toothed, sharp-pointed, 

 with many rows of stomata on all faces, containing 2 to 6 resin-ducts and i fibro- 

 vascular bundle; they are in crowded clusters and persist for two or three or even 

 five years. The pale grayish green, lanceolate, and 

 long-pointed primary leaves are abundantly pro- 

 duced on sprouts from stumps or injured portions 

 of the tree. The flowers appear in April or May, 

 the staminate in short crowded clusters, oblong- 

 cylindric, about 18 mm. long, with light purplish 

 anthers. The pistillate flowers are in pairs or 

 clusters of 3 or 4, lateral, but often near the ends 

 of the branches, erect and stoutly stalked, oblong 

 or globose, about 8 mm. long, their scales ovate, 

 sharp-tipped, pink or pale red. The cones, ripen- 

 ing in the autumn of the second season, are short- 

 stalked and pendulous, usually in clusters, conic 

 when closed, ovoid when open, 5 to 6.5 cm. long, 

 dull brown, opening soon after reaching maturity 

 and persisting for several years. The scales are 

 rather thin and concave, rounded at the apex, transversely ridged, slightly thickened 

 and provided with a small oblong knob, armed with a short, straight or shghtly 

 recurved early deciduous bristle, their unexposed surfaces reddish and shining on 

 the upper side, dark purple and dull beneath; seed oblong-triangular, little flat- 

 tened, about 5 mm. long, somewhat ridged, pale brown and somewhat roughened; 

 its wing is thin and fragile, light reddish and shining, about 2 cm. long, obHque 

 and tapering each way from the middle. 



The wood is hard, strong, coarse-grained, dark yellow or Hght brown and 

 resinous; its specific gravity is about 0.61. It furnishes the most desirable of the 

 yellow pine lumber of commerce, being less resinous and more easily worked 

 than that of other species, and is used for general construction and carpentr\^ and 

 in cabinet work. 



This tree also is tapped for turpentine, especially in North Carolina. It is 

 of great value as a reforester, spreading rapidly over neglected lands, soon trans- 

 forming them into valuable forests. It is occasionally seen in cultivation and is 

 known under many common names, most of which have also been appHed to other 

 species of pine, as Yellow pine. Spruce pine. Bull pine, Shortschat pine, Pitch pine, 



Fig. 25. Short-leaved Pine 



