(93) 



The leaves of the scrub pine are twisted and this character 

 serves to distinguish it from all the other pines of the Hudson 

 Valley. The " needles " are from an inch and a half to two 

 and a half inches long and arranged two in a cluster, their 

 bases being enclosed in a persistent sheath. 



The cones are without a stalk and usually attached to the 

 side of a branch but sometimes at the end of it. When 

 closed they are conical in outline, but become ovoid when the 

 scales loosen to release the seers. The scales are prickle- 

 Commercially the tree is of little importance, the wood 

 being soft and weak. It has little decorative value, except in 

 picturesque masses, as it is more or less scraggy. It is much 

 valued as a reforester, for it quickly covers burned or worn 

 out areas. It reaches its northernmost limit on Staten Island 

 and adjacent New Jersey. 



Red Pine Pinus resinosa 



In favorable situations the red pine often attains a height 

 of 1 20 feet, and a trunk diameter of 3 to 4 feet. The tall 

 straight trunk is clothed with scaly reddish bark that is only 

 shallowly fissured. 



The sharp-pointed " needles " are arranged in clusters of 

 two, and their margins are minutely toothed. They are 

 from 5 to 7 inches long, slender and flexible. The infertile 

 flowers bloom in May, followed later by the fertile flowers 

 and " cones." The latter are oblong in shape, from 2^ to 

 33^ inches long, and composed of numerous scales that are 

 turned backward at their tips, but are without prickles. 

 These blunt-tipped scales of the cone distinguish this tree 

 from all the other pines of the valley, except the white pine, 

 from which the red pine differs in having only two leaves to 

 a sheath instead of five. 



The red pine is occasional in the upper Hudson Valley, 

 and a record exists of its having once grown at Inwood on 

 Manhattan Island. It is distributed from Nova Scotia to 

 southward to the mountains of Pennsylvania. 



