Pinus 1095 



the parallel of 35°, occupying large tracts in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and 

 Mississippi, extending into southern Tennessee. West of the Mississippi river it 

 occurs as far north as the south-eastern border of Indian Territory and southern 

 Arkansas, where it frequently grows in extensive nearly pure forests on the rolling 

 uplands, and occurs in Louisiana and eastern Texas as far west as the valley of the 

 Colorado river. 



On the Atlantic slope, near its northern limit, it grows most frequently on the 

 flat lands of the tidewater districts, usually crowded with other pines, oaks, and 

 hickories ; and in Virginia and North Carolina springs up rapidly on lands exhausted 

 by agriculture, the primeval forests having nearly all disappeared. In the swamps 

 bordering the Albemarle and Pimlico sounds, gigantic trees of this species, known as 

 the Rosemary pine, sometimes attained ^ a height of 1 70 ft. 



In Berkeley county. South Carolina, the forest land^ consists of four distinct 

 regions. On the fresh and moist uplands, where the soil is a light sandy loam, 

 P. Tcsda occurs both in pure stands or in mixture with P. palustris and broad-leaved 

 trees, P. palustris is confined mainly to the higher situations and the drier and 

 lighter soils, either pure or mixed with P. Tisda and hardwoods. In the alluvial 

 land, either along rivers or bordering swamps, where the soil is best, the forest is 

 mixed, consisting of maple, ash, hickory, oaks, with P. Tcsda and P. serotina. In the 

 swamps, where there is standing water all the year round, there is the same admixture 

 of species, with the addition of Taxodium distichum. (A. H.) 



This pine is of considerable economic importance in the southern and south- 

 western states, where it forms considerable forests ; and though there are no reliable 

 statistics, it appears to be one of the main trees cut for lumber at the present time 

 in Virginia and the Carolinas.* A considerable proportion of the long and heavy 

 sticks of hewn timber reaching the Mobile market from Alabama for export as 

 "pitch pine" are Loblolly pine.* Half the lumber cut in Arkansas and shipped as 

 " yellow pine " to northern markets is Loblolly pine, the other half being P. echinata. 

 The timber is very variable in quality under different conditions of growth. Sargent 

 says that very large and fine masts were formerly made of this tree, and used in the 

 United States as well as shipped to Europe ; but were not distinguished by Laslett 

 from those made of P. Strobus. 



In England this tree has been grown for nearly two centuries, having been 

 introduced^ by Bishop Compton before 1713, but though it has attained a considerable 

 size in some instances, it cannot be said to thrive in this country, requiring a much 

 greater degree of heat than our climate affords. 



Loudon figures a tree 75 ft. high, growing at Syon in 1838, and mentions others 

 at Kew, Dropmore, Whitton, and Pains Hill, the latter being then 60 to 70 ft. high, 

 and, as he said, the handsomest tree in Europe. All these are now dead, 



» Cf. Curtis, Trees and Shrubs, N. Carolina, 23 (i860). 



2 Cf. Chapman, in U.S. Forestry Bulletin 56, pp. 8-10 (1905). . „. . . ^ ,.,.,.. c .^ 



3 Pinchot in U.S. Forestry Bulletin 77, P- 18 (i9o6), says :-Most of the pine cut in Virginia and North and South 

 Carolina is P. Tada, which is widely known in commerce in the United States as North Carolina pme. 



* Mohr says the best qualities are equal to true pitch pine, and are used by house carpenters. Large amounts of infenor 

 stuff are shipped as firewood from the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina. 

 6 Alton, Hort. Kev). iii. 368 (1789)- 



