330 The Pines. 



lumber. Its leaves are in pairs, short and rigid, and its cones are 

 slightly curved and with pointless scales. They sometimes remain 

 on for many years. 



1341. THE LONG-LEAVED OR SOUTHERN YELLOW PINE (Pinus 

 australis). This is by far the most important of the southern pines, 

 and extends from Virginia around into Texas. It usually grows to 

 the height of 60 to 70 feet, with a diameter of 15 to 20 inches, but 

 in favorable conditions to a larger, size. In richer soils it is less 

 resinous, and from a reddish tinge to the wood is called " Ked Pine." 

 A tree with a small top is said to indicate the best heart-wood. 

 This species furnishes most of the resinous products of the Southern 

 States, as already described. [ 795.] 



1342. As a timber, it is scarcely rivaled by any of the pines for 

 durability and strength, and large quantities are exported annually 

 to foreign markets and to the Northern States. Trees that have 

 been worked for turpentine are less valued as timber, and such are 

 sometimes excluded in contracts for supplies. 



1343. The long-leaved pine was noticed by Michaux as a poor 

 seeder, and in unfruitful years a cone can not be found within hun- 

 dreds of miles. A correspondent remarks: "According to my ob- 

 servation, these unfruitful years are far more common than the 

 fruitful ones. In its struggle for existence in our days, the odds of 

 a survival of its kind among the arborescent vegetation that disputes 

 its ground are greatly against it. Taken from the flat moist lands, 

 it is replaced almost exclusively by the Pond and Old-field Pine ; the 

 hilly, broken, dry upland, denuded of the grand old pine forest, is 

 with surprising rapidity covered by a dense and shrubby growth of 

 black-jack, turkey-oak, scarlet and upland oak, above which seldom 

 a young pine raises its head, crowned with its large white-fringed 

 terminal bud. 



1344. " Full of resinous juices through ail stages of its life, the 

 young trees are not as able to withstand the raging fires that an- 

 nually devastate the woods as the less resinous species and the de- 

 ciduous-leaved trees ; besides that, being of much slower growth, 

 this noble tree is doomed to extinction, if not protected by man. 

 On tracts sheltered from the invasion of fire, groves of young trees 

 from 15 to 25 feet can be observed around Mobile, testifying that 

 its existence for the future can in some measure be secured, if pro- 



