92 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



ous, with but little space between the original whorls, they 

 seem to proceed from every part of the trunk. Hence, of all 

 the pine tribe, this species shows the least of anything like 

 primness in its shape ; and seldom can anything of the spiry 

 form, which is peculiar to the tribe, be traced in its outlines. 

 Another peculiarity in the habit of the pitch pine, is a ten- 

 dency to throw out imperfect branches along its stem, from 

 the root upwards, after it has been left alone by the removal 

 of other trees in the forest. These shoots rarely become 

 anything more than tufts, somewhat resembling the growth 

 of small vine-like branches that fringe the tall trunks of the 

 American elm. If I were obliged to plant any tree of this 

 kind in the enclosures of my dwelling-house, I should great- 

 ly prefer this tree to either a spruce or a fir. If it be muti- 

 lated, it has some power to mend the wound ; and, instead 

 of resembling a ragged dandy, as we may say of the firs 

 when they are injured in their growth, it covers itself with 

 green tufts of foliage, and, without any pretensions to regular 

 beauty, it presents a picturesque appearance that is more 

 ■pleasing to the sight. 



I have seen very beautiful trees of an anomalous growth, 

 produced by the loss, when very young, of the leading shoot, 

 both of this and the preceding species. The lateral branch- 

 es next below the terminal shoot were immediately converted 

 into leaders, and, diverging from each other, yielded the tree 

 an interesting variety of subdivision and outline. In case of 

 such an accident, the white pine, having five branches in a 

 whorl, will sometimes give out four or five leaders ; while 

 the pitch pine, having whorls of three, rarely gives out more 

 than two leaders, as the number is seldom full. An Ameri- 

 can larch was lately shown to me, which had been purposely 

 deprived of its leading shoot, to destroy the formality of its 

 growth. The tree has nothing of its specific pyramidal 

 shape, but a roundness of head, and an expansion, that make 

 it greatly preferable to one that had never been mutilated. 

 One advantage derived from this operation upon the spiry 

 formed trees, is that, with several leading stems, they cannot 

 suffer so much from the loss of a lateral branch as when they 

 have but a single perpendicular shaft. 



