SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE. 



CONIFERAE (OR PINACEAE). Pink Family. 



Includes about 33 genera and 250 species, nearly all trees, 

 widely distributed over the world, and furnishing most of the 

 lumber used in temperate regions, and various resinous products 

 Many are cultivated for ornament. 



PINUS, L. The Pines. 



Pinus palustris, Mill. {F. litfca, Walt.; P. aitstralis, Mx.) 



(Map 6 and Figs. 1-3) Long-leaf pine. 



A large tree, with the longest leaves and largest cones of any 

 pine in eastern North America. The largest specimens on record 

 were about 40 inches in diameter and 100 feet tall ; but at the 

 present time it is exceptional for one to escape the lumberman's 

 axe long enough to attain a diameter of two feet and a height of 

 75 feet. It blooms in March and April and ripens its cones in 

 about a year and a half, but produces good seed only about once 

 in four or five years. 



This species probably has more uses than any other tree in 

 North America, if not in the whole world ; and as it was probably 

 once the mos! abundant tree in the United States, the exploitation 

 of its products has furnished the principal source of income for 

 millions of people at one time or another. Its lumber and naval 

 stores have been exported to all parts of the civilized world, over a 

 million dollars' worth in a year sometimes going out from the port 

 of Mobile alone. 



Of its many economic properties only a few need to be men. 

 tioned here. It does not thrive in cultivation, but is sometimes left 

 standing for ornament when a forest of it is converted into a park 

 or something of the sort. The living tree exhales an aroma which 

 is claimed to be beneficial for persons with weak lungs. Its wood 

 is the strongest, heaviest, and most durable of all North American 

 pines (with the possible exception of its near relative, to be men- 

 tioned next). Whole trunks are used for piles, foot-logs, and 

 sometimes (after being creosoted) for poles to carry electric wires. 

 Long dressed pieces make bridge timbers, columns, masts, spars, 



