6 THE PINE FAMILY. 



some places known as an excellent disinfectant and native surgeons make 

 use of it when dressing wounds. And in the field of vital usefulness this 

 tree is more prominent than any other one of the pitch pines, as it is also 

 the most beautiful. There is very little sap-wood in its timber and the re- 

 sinous matter is well distributed. Besides, therefore, having its timber 

 used for various constructions, it supplies the greater part of our turpentine, 

 tar and pitch. The tree is, however, greatly effected by the quality of the 

 soil in which it grows and becomes, in very rich mould, considerably less 

 resinous. 



In passing along on the railway from North Carolina to Florida, acres 

 and acres are to be seen covered with this tree. But there the greater 

 number of individuals have lost their beauty through the process of boxing, 

 which is employed to obtain their products, and often but a tuft of green at 

 their summits proclaims that they are still alive. A melancholy, solemn air 

 pervades these gaunt creatures so mercilessly given over to commerce. 

 It is only lightened by the beauty of many soft young ones cropping up 

 through their midst. 



P. TcBda, old field, or loblolly pine, grows up, as one of its common 

 names implies, in old fields and clearings and although it affords considerable 

 turpentine it is not much worked. The wood, on account of its coarse 

 grain, is usually sawed into large pieces. From Texas and Florida it occurs, 

 in dry or moist soil, northeastward to New Jersey and is very common in 

 North Carolina. It is a large, rugged tree, often one hundred and fifty feet 

 high, and bears its leaves, which are from six to eight inches long, in groups 

 of three. They are tine and flexible and highly coloured. The young cones 

 when growing at the base of the new growth look as though their scales 

 were unevenly set and very sharp-pointed. In fact, as long as they remain 

 closed they present something of this appearance. But when the scales are 

 let widely loose, that the seeds may escape, they are extremely pretty and 

 are tipped with a soft fawn colour. By many this tree is known as the 

 frankincense pine, and when growing in swampy ground, the North Car- 

 olina woodsmen call it rosemary pine. 



P. Strobus, white pine or Weymouth pine, a marked and well known 

 figure among our silva, can be distinguished from the often grotesque 

 pitch pines by the graceful growth of its great whorled branches ; the 

 smooth bark clothing the young trunks ; and by the fact that its leaves, with 

 their soft, silky sheen, grow five in a group. They are three-sided and 

 quite rough along their margins. This white bloom which covers their un- 

 der surfaces produces as they are waved upward by the wind swift and en- 

 chanting changes of light against masses of bluish green. The resinous 

 cones are slender, cylindrical and slightly curved. Their scales are thin, 



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