86 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



OUR NATIVE PINES. 



BY WILSON FLAGG. 



I. The White Pine. (Pinus strobus.) 



We have already considered the general character of a 

 pine wood. It remains to speak of individual species : of 

 their beauty, their utility, and their value as ornamental ob- 

 jects. The first species of this tribe that presents itself to 

 our notice, is the white pine, (Pinus strobus,) which is one 

 of the most beautiful and valuable of our coniferous trees. 

 I shall premise with a few remarks concerning the elemen- 

 tary qualities of a beautiful tree. I consider the beauty of 

 trees as chiefly of a relative kind, consisting of an evident 

 adaptedness to certain agreeable purposes, immediately affect- 

 ing our sensibility and comfort. The idea of any mechani- 

 cal purposes to which they may be applied, produces no such 

 effect, because we do not identify with the tree, a beautiful 

 and convenient piece of furniture that may be made from it. 

 A tree affects the sight with pleasure, when we observe its 

 evident capacity to afford us shade and shelter ; but it seems 

 no more beautiful from our knowledge of the uses to which 

 it may be applied in cabinet making and architecture. There 

 is an exception to this remark in the case of a pine tree, 

 when sending up a tall shaft, which may seem beautiful to 

 some persons from its evident serviceableness for the mast of 

 a ship ; for in this case the tree and the mast are identical. 

 Its usefulness for this purpose, as well as for purposes of 

 shade and shelter, when assuming broader shape, is apparent 

 in its physiognomy ; but its usefulness for the arts in general, 

 to which it is applied, is not sufficiently self evident. It may 

 be remarked as an unexceptionable law, with respect to a 

 tree, or an animal, or the human species, that those agreeable 

 qualities only constitute a part of the beauty of these respect- 

 ive objects, which are apparent in their outward expression. 

 When we speak of a beautiful tree, we think more of all, 

 these agreeable circumstances which are connected with it, 

 than of any positive visual charms, such as we perceive in a 



