36 



The Pines 



into broad, flat, irregular plates covered with thin, reddish brown scales; the inner 

 layers of the bark are yellowish brown. The twigs are stout, smooth, dark 

 yellow at first, becoming much darker and roughened by the persistent bases of 

 the bud-scales. Branch-buds are cyhndric, gradually narrowed to the apex, about 

 4 cm. long, the lateral ones much smaller, the scales shining brown and fringed 



with long white hairs. The leaves 

 are in sheathed clusters of 2 or 3, the 

 2-leaved clusters often occurring on 

 }'oung plants ; they are dark green and 

 shining, stout, 1 7 to 30 cm. long, closely 

 small-toothed, tipped with a short 

 thickened point, marked by many hnes 

 of stomata on all faces, and contain 

 4 to 6 resin passages and 2 fibrovas- 

 cular bundles ; they are crowded at the 

 ends of the twigs and per- 

 sist for about two years. 

 The flowers appear in 

 January and February be- 

 fore the new leaves ap- 



pear. 



the staminate ones 



Fig. 28. Slash Pine. 



cylindric, 1.5 to 2.5 cm. 

 long, usually incurved, 

 with dark puiple anthers. 

 The pistillate flowers are 

 nearly terminal, short- 

 stalked, oval, 12 mm. 

 long, the scales broadly 

 ovate and pink, the bracts large. The cones are narrowly conic when closed, cylin- 

 dric or conic-cylindric when open, 9 to 14 cm. long, dark brown and shining, dis- 

 charging the seed in October and persist until the following summer; their scales 

 are thin, nearly flat, rounded at the apex, ridged and thickened into a low knob 

 which is surmounted by a small spine, the latter incun^ed on basal scales, recur\'cd 

 on scales toward the apex of the cone ; the unexposed portion of the scales is dark, 

 dull purple beneath, dull red above. The seed is almost triangular, rounded on 

 the sides, 5 to 7 mm. long, dark gray, mottled and roughened; the wing thin, 

 fragile, dark brown and striped, 2 to 2.5 cm. long, with a blunt apex; cotyledons 

 6 to 9. 



The wood is ver\' hard, strong and tough, coarse-grained and very resinous, 

 dark orange-colored; its specific gravity is about 0.75. It is quite durable and 

 scarcely inferior to that of the Longleaf pine and is used indiscriminately as such. 

 This tree is also tapped for tu:])enlinc and is said to yield a softer resin con- 

 taining more spirits than the Longleaf pine. It is a rai)id grower; the seed ger- 



