TIIE PIXE SUB-FAMILY. ^9 



account, although yielding a fair proportion of tar and 

 turpentine. 



In a comparison of the opinions of Michaux and Lam- 

 bert, in regard to the value of the products of this Pine, 

 London gives the following extracts. " Though this spe- 

 cies," Michaux observes, " yields turpentine and tar, their 

 extraction demands too much labor, as this Pine is always 

 mingled in the forest with other trees." Lambert, on the 

 contrary, asserts that " the wood has a sponginess and 

 lightness which deprives it of durability, and renders it 

 useless in building, or, indeed, for any purposes of a simi- 

 lar kind ; but it is tolerably full of resin, so that the 

 Americans employ it for its tar and pitch." 



In an ornamental point of view, it compares very favor- 

 ably with the majority of our cultivated foreign species. 

 The handsome, conical-shaped head has given it the name 

 of Spruce Pine; in some sections such may possibly be 

 the P. glf.ibra, of Walter. The peculiar richness in the 

 coloring of the leaves, softly merging from a bright blu- 

 ish green to the darkest hue, in the alternate changes of 

 light and shade, is really charming. 



The leaves are very fine, slender, and flexible, and im- 

 part a peculiar beauty to the tree, which is not met with 

 in any other Pine that is a native of the Northern or Mid- 

 dle States, excepting, perhaps, a chance specimen of P. 

 rigida. On this account, a recent writer in recommend- 

 ing it for cultivation, very appropriately compared it to 

 the Austrian Pine, and says : " so far from being naturally 

 a scraggy tree, it thickeus-in more naturally than any Pine 

 I know." 



A peculiarity in this species is, that when growing very 

 luxuriantly in rather rich soils, the leaves will often be 

 found three in a sheath, thus giving rise to the synonym 

 of Pursh, P. variabilis, as well as the P. intermedia, of 

 Fischer, being deemed intermediate, or as a connecting link 

 between the Binre and Tcrnatte sections. London also 



