mo The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Bay ; and reaching on the west the valley of the Mackenzie river and the Rocky 

 Mountains. This pine extends southwards in the United States to Maine,^ northern 

 New Hampshire, Vermont, and northern New York, where it is rare and local and 

 stunted ; becoming common and of large size in Michigan, Wisconsin, and central 

 Minnesota, and reaching its most southerly point in the northern parts of Indiana and 



Illinois. 



In Canada, it attains its maximum size and is most abundant west of Lake 

 Winnipeg and north of the Saskatchewan river, where it spreads over great areas of 

 poor sandy soil, and is common and large in size in the regions north of Lake 



Superior.^ 



Mr. J. C. Langelier,' in his description of the immense forests of the province of 

 Quebec, north of lat. 48°, where this tree is only second in importance to black and 

 white spruce as a source of supply of sawn timber, says : — " Botanists describe 

 Banksian pine as a stunted, short, and branchy tree. This description certainly 

 applies not to the Banksian pine of the Lake St. John and Saguenay district, 

 where these trees grow to a considerable height, and attain a diameter which 

 renders them fit for saw-logs. On the Riviere au Rat in 1898, a jobber cut a 

 tree of this kind, which gave 91 ft. of usable timber, viz. five saw-logs and 

 two ties. This tree measured 15 in, across the stump and over 7 in. at the 

 top. At the Escoumains Mills, they sawed for many years Banksian pine logs, 

 turning out good boards which were exported to the United States. Banksian pine 

 ties are from year to year coming to the front, and are transported by railway from 

 Roberval to Quebec, a distance of 190 miles. When there will be no more cedar 

 {Thuya occidentalis) to supply the enormous quantities of ties required yearly by 

 railroads, one of its most valuable substitutes will unquestionably be found in the 

 Banksian pine, which the northern region is in a position to supply for a very long 

 period." 



In the province of Quebec, south of lat. 48°, Banksian pine grows nearly every- 

 where on the poor rocky and gravelly lands, chiefly in the dry plains which have been 

 formerly laid waste by fire. It is not so tall or so good as in the northern region, 

 but nearly always is large enough to make railway ties. In this part of Quebec 

 province, P. Strobus and P. resinosa are more important as sources of supply of sawn 

 timber.' This pine never approaches the sea-coast, but it occupies outlying stations 

 in the centre of Nova Scotia and of New Brunswick.* 



In Michigan, northern Wisconsin, and central Minnesota, immense tracts of poor 

 sandy soil are covered by Banksian pine, either pure or in mixture with red pine 

 {P. resinosa). In Michigan^ these tracts are known as Jack pine plains or barrens ; 



1 Around Lake Umbagog, in Maine, it attains a height of 60 ft. ; but is usually in New England a low tree, 15 to 30 ft. 

 high. Cf. Dame and Brooks, Trees of New England, 8 (1902). 



2 Bell saw large groves on Albany river, south-west of James Bay, with trees 70 ft. high and 2 ft. in diameter at the butt. 

 Cf. Card. Chron. xx. 503 (1883). 



3 Canadian Forestry Association, dth Annual Report, 1905, pp. 64, 67, 69. 

 * Bot. Gazette, xxiv. 299 (1897). 



6 Cf. E. J. Hill, in Garden and Forest, iv. 278 (1891). In Michigan the trees are usually not more than 30 or 40 fl. high, 

 with short scraggy trunks, and are occasionally mere shrubs. Britton, however, measured trees near Marquette on Lake 

 Superior, 70 ft. high. Cf. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, 1883, p. 82. An account of this tree on the dunes bordering Lake 

 Michigan is given by Cowles, in Bot. Gaz. xxvii. 371 (1899). 



