THE PINES 237 



Louisiana. It has remarkable vitality of seed and seed- 

 lings, which do equally well on sterile uplands, on water- 

 soaked ground, or where soil is light and sandy. It is very 

 apt to take possession of land once cleared for agriculture. 

 The young trees crowd together and grow with tre- 

 mendous vigor the first years of their lives, successfully 

 holding large tracts in pure forests. The limbs are short, 

 thick, matted, forming a compact rounded head; the leaves 

 slender, stiff, twisted, pale-green, six to nine inches long, in 

 groups of threes. The wood is rich in resin, but differs 

 greatly in quality with age and the fertility of the soil. 

 "Rosemary pine" was heavy, hard, close-grained, with a 

 thin rim of soft sap-wood. This famous lumber, preferred 

 by shipbuilders of many countries for masts, grew in the 

 virgin forest of the Carolinas. Giants were cut in the rich 

 marsh lands back from the Sounds. But the small lob- 

 lolly pine, grown on sandy soil, is but third-grade lumber, 

 the sap-wood three times as thick as the heart- wood and ex- 

 ceedingly coarse-grained. One merit has recently been 

 discovered in this lumber, that formerly blackened before 

 it was seasoned, by the invasion of a fungous growth. It 

 quickly absorbs creosote, which renders it immune, from 

 deca3\ It is used in the building of docks, cars, boats, and 

 locally in house-building. Its wood makes a sharp, quick 

 heat wh'^n dried. It is used in bakeries and brick kilns, 

 and in charcoal-burning. 



The Pitch Pine 



P. rigida. Mill. 



The pitch pine goes down to the very water's edge on the 

 sand-dunes along the New-England Coast, and spreads on 



