16 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



scales armed with minute incurved or recurved prickles, becoming dark rich lustrous brown; 

 seeds almost triangular, full and rounded on the sides, le'-l*' long, with a thin brittle 

 dark gray shell mottled with black, and dark brown wings f'-l' long, 4' wide, their 

 thickened bases encircling the seeds and often covering a large part of their lower surface. 

 A tree, often 100 high, with a tall tapering trunk 2^-3 in diameter, heavy horizontal 

 branches forming a handsome round-topped head, and stout orange-colored ultimately 

 dark branchlets. Bark \'-\' thick, and separating freely on the surface into large thin 

 scales. Wood heavy, exceedingly hard, very strong, durable, coarse-grained, rich dark 

 orange color, with thick nearly white sapwood; manufactured into lumber and used for 

 construction and railway-ties. Naval stores are largely produced from this tree. 



Distribution. Coast region of South Carolina southward over the coast plain to the 

 keys of southern Florida and along the Gulf coast to eastern Louisiana (Saint Tammany, 

 Washington, southern Tangipahoa and eastern Livingston Parishes) ; common on the Ba- 

 hamas, on the Isle of Pines, and on the lowlands of Honduras and eastern Guatemala: 

 in the coast region of the southern states gradually replacing the Long-leaved Pine, Pinus 

 palustris, Mill. 



13. Pinus taeda L. Loblolly Pine. Old Field Pine. 



Leaves slender, stiff, slightly twisted, pale green and somewhat glaucous, 6'-9' long, 

 marked by 10-12 rows of large stomata on each face, deciduous during their third year. 

 Flowers opening from the middle of March to the first of May; male crowded in short 

 spikes, yellow; female lateral below the apex of the growing shoot, solitary or clustered, 

 short-stalked, yellow. Fruit oblong-conic to ovoid-cylindric, nearly sessile, 2'-6' long, be- 

 coming light reddish brown, with thin scales rounded at the apex and armed with short 

 stout straight or reflexed prickles, opening irregularly and discharging their seeds during 

 the autumn and winter, and usually persistent on the branches for another year; seeds 

 rhomboidal, full and rounded, i' long, with a thin dark brown rough shell blotched with 

 black, and produced into broad thin lateral margins, encircled to the base by the narrow 

 border of their thin pale brown lustrous wing broadest above the middle, 1' long, about 

 j' wide. 



A tree, generally 80-100 high, with a tall straight trunk usually about 2 but occa- 

 sionally 5 in diameter, short thick much divided branches, the lower spreading, the upper 

 ascending and forming a compact round- topped head, and comparatively slender glabrous 

 branchlets brown tinged with yellow during their first season and gradually growing 

 darker in their second year. Bark of the trunk f'-l|' thick, bright red-brown, and irreg- 



