222 TREES 



hard and soft pines without examination of the wood. 

 Soft pines shed the papery sheath of their leaf bundles be- 

 fore the leaves themselves begin to fall. Hard pines re- 

 tain the leaf sheath mitil the leaves are shed. A glance at 

 any leafy pine branch will enable us to determine to which 

 of the two classes a given tree belongs. 



The Soft Pines 



The outward and visible sign of a soft pine is the loose, 

 deciduous sheath of its leaf bundles. The scales of its 

 cones are usually unarmed with horns or prickles. The 

 wood is soft, light colored, close-grained. The number of 

 leaves in a bundle is the principal key to the species. 



The White Pine 



Pinus Strobus, Linn. 



The white pine (see illustrations, "pages 21^-215) is the only 

 pine east of the Rocky Mountains that bears its leaves in 

 bundles of five. This semi-decimal plan is found in three 

 western soft pines and two western hard pines; but in the 

 East, a native tree with needles in fives, leaves no doubt as 

 to its name. From a distance this plan of ^yq can be seen 

 in the five branches that form a platform each year around 

 the central shaft. 



Study a sapling pine and you see in its vigorous young 

 growth the fulfillment of nature's plan, before storms have 

 broken any of the branches and changed the mathematics 

 of the pattern. Stroke the flexible, soft leaves that sway 

 graceful and hthe in the wind. If it is spring, note that 



