25 



3. Pinus virginiana Miller. JERSEY PINE. SCRUB PINE. Plate 

 4. Bark dark-brown with rather shallow fissures, the ridges broken, 

 somewhat scaly; shoots green, light brown or purplish with a bloom, 

 becoming a gray-brown; leaves in bundles of two, rarely three, twisted, 

 usually about 4-5 cm. long, deciduous during the third or fourth year; 

 cones sessile or nearly so, narrowly conic when closed, 4-7 cm. long, 

 opening in the autumn of the second season; scales armed with a curved 

 spine 2-4 mm. long; wood light, soft, weak, brittle and slightly resinous. 



Distribution. Long Island to South Carolina, Alabama and north 

 to Indiana and Licking County, Ohio. The distribution in Indiana is 

 quite limited, and has never been understood by authors who variously 

 give it as found throughout the southern part of Indiana. It is confined 

 to the knob area of Floyd, Clark and Scott Counties, and the south- 

 eastern part of Washington County. In the original forest it is con- 

 fined to the tops of the knobs where it is associated with Quercus 

 Prinus (Gray's Man. 7th Edition). It propagates easily from self- 

 sown seed, hence is soon found on the lower slopes of cut-over lands, 

 and soon occupies fallow fields. It is now found in the open woods 

 several miles east of the knobs in the preceding counties, but pioneers 

 of this section say it was not a constituent of the original forests but 

 has come in since the original forests were heavily cut over. It is 

 believed that it crowned the knobs over our area from 5-10 miles wide 

 extending through the counties named and extending northward about 

 25 miles. This species is found in the open woods on a few hills on 

 the Millport Ridge in the northern part of Washington County, and it 

 appears as if native, but investigation showed that it had spread from 

 a tree on the site of a pioneer's cabin. It is also found as a frequent 

 escape on the wooded bluff of Raccoon Creek in the southern part of 

 Owen County, and appears as native here. It is associated on the bluff 

 and slope with hemlock. Chas. Green, a man of sixty years, who owns 

 the place says the trees were seeded by a tree planted in his father's 

 yard nearby. His father also planted a white pine in his yard, and it is 

 to be noted while the Jersey Pine has freely escaped the white pine has 

 not, although the habitat seems favorable. 



Remarks. In its native habitat on the exposed summits of the 

 "knobs" it is usually a small tree about 3 dm. in diameter and 10 m. 

 high. When it finds lodgement on the lower slopes and coves it may 

 attain a diameter of 7 dm. and a height of 25 m. This tree is really 

 entitled to be called "old field pine" on account of its ability to establish 

 itself on them. 



From the ea^e with which this species propagates itself from seed it 

 seems worthy a trial for forestry purposes in the "knob" area of the 



