2 THE PINE FAMILY. 



THE PINE FAMILY. 



Pindce<^, 



A large group of resinous trees or shrubs 7inth evergreen or non- 

 evergreen leaves which^ in outline^ are mostly needle-shaped or scale-like. \ 

 Stamens a few together^ subtended by a bract or scale. Ovules several^ 

 or solitary^ borne on the surface of a scale and generally subtended by a\ 

 bract. Calyx and corolla^ nojie. Fruit : a cone with several or many, 

 either woody or fleshy scales^ or sometimes a drupe. 



YELLOW PINE. SHORT=LEAVED PINE. SCRUB PINE. 

 BULL PINE. 



Pinus echinata. 



FAMILY SHAPE HEIGHT RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Pine. Pyramidal : brancJies 40-120 Texas ntid Florida May^June. 



regular^ spreading. feet. to Staten Island. 



Bark: greyish brown ; rough; .much broken into plates. BrancJilets : green or 

 purplish; stout; glaucous when young. Leaves: three to five inches long ; dark 

 bluish green ; simple ; growing closely along the branches in bunches of two, or 

 sometimes three and occasionally four on the young shoots, and having sheaths at 

 their bases ; diverging widely at maturity ; needle-shaped ; slender; dark green, and 

 rounded on the outer side, hollowed on the inner one; evergreen. Cones : one and 

 a half to two and a half inches long ; ovate ; clustered or solitary and lateral ; be- 

 coming rough and jagged as they grow older. Scales : thick at the apex, and tipped 

 with a weak, projectmg prickle which often falls early. 



Through the south, from the mountains to the coast-line, there is seen an 

 abundance of this fine, sturdy pine which here, as in the middle states, is 

 known to the people as "our yellow pine." Even although often pro- 

 nounced " yaller " the name is still a more appropriate one than that of 

 •' short-leaved pine," as it is also called ; for, in the south, other species oc- 

 cur with leaves quite as short. The tree is but moderately resinous. In a 

 light, clayey soil it thrives best, its timber becoming very coarse when sub- 

 jected to an extremely fertile mould. 



P. glabra, Walter's pine, or spruce pine, is very local in its habit and 

 seldom found growing over fifty miles away from salt water. It favours 

 swamps and hummocks from South Carolina to the Gulf region of Louisi- 

 ana, or grows in dense woods often with magnolias, the yellow pine and 

 beeches. More compact than any other of the Atlantic pines is its oval- 

 shaped crown, and its growth is rapid and steady. Its leaves are borne, 

 two in a bunch, along the branches. They are smooth, deeply channelled 

 above and rounded on the under sides. In length they average about three 



