316 The Ginkgo: The Pine Tribe. 



no resin in its wood, as most of the "resinous species " have with which 

 it is classed. Its leaves are broad and wedge-shaped, usually two-lobed, 

 and as unlike the usual form of coniferous leaves as can well be im- 

 agined. Its wood is soft and spongy, and its bark smooth and ash- 

 colored. It has borne fruit in the United States, and in China it 

 grows to enormous size. 



1293. It does not thrive in a frosty climate, but will live and bear 

 leaves, without gaining i:i size, iu Northern New York and in cor- 

 responding latitudes. Near Philadelphia trees have grown to GO 

 feet or more in height. This tree shows in its mode of branching 

 some relationship to the spruce, and is most interesting from the 

 exceptional character of its leaves, and its general habit of growth. 

 The remaining genera of the yew family are all exotic, and will 

 not be noticed. The same remark applies to the families Podocarpece 

 and Araucariece, which present many interesting species, of great 

 value ia their native countries for their timber, and of interest with 

 us only where they may be used in ornamental planting. 



THE PINE FAMILY. 



1294. The sixth and last family of the conifers the Abietinece 

 includes seven genera, viz.: Pitius, the pines; Cedrus, the cedar of 

 Lebanon ; Picea,, the spruces ; Tsuya, the hemlocks ; Pseudotsuga, 

 the Douglas fir; Abies, the firs; and Larix, the larches. All of 

 these but the second are natives of the United States, and find 

 within our limits their grandest development. Their commercial 

 importance demands a special notice. 



THE PINES. (Genus Pinus.) 



1295. Botanists describe about seventy species of the pine, chiefly 

 in the northern hemisphere, and of these about twenty-four belong 

 to the old world. In the United States we have about thirty species, 

 of which a dozen occur in the Atlantic States, and the remainder in 

 the Rocky Mountain region, and upon the Pacific Coast. Some six- 

 teen or seventeen are found in Mexico and the West Indies. They 

 are divided into groups, depending upon the number of leaves in a 

 common bundle, the form of the seed-scales, and other charac- 

 ters. 



1296. The pines bear their seeds in pairs, between the scales, of 



