Pinus 



nil 



and the soil, containing little or no vegetable mould, is often nothing but a shifting 

 mass of sand. In Wisconsin, according to Roth,^ it is always a small tree, generally 

 less than lo in. in diameter and below 60 ft. in height. In Minnesota, where I saw 

 It on the Cass Lake forest reservation, it is much finer, many groves averaging over 

 80 ft. in height and i ft. in diameter, the largest tree which I actually measured being 

 87 ft. high and 3 ft. 3 in. in girth. These groves of pure Banksian pine, which in 

 other localities are often many square miles in extent, consist of tall slender trees, 

 all of the same age and very uniform in size and appearance, with a stem clear of 

 branches to 30 or 40 ft., and a narrow crown of foliage, standing very close together 

 on the ground, which is bare of undergrowth. Plate 289 is taken from a photograph 

 for which I am indebted to the U.S. Forestry Bureau. 



The Banksian pine not only withstands extreme cold, but even thrives in a severe 

 climate, as is witnessed by its luxuriant development in the northern and western 

 parts of Canada and in Minnesota. It has been successfully cultivated in the 

 Dakotas and Nebraska^ for shelter belts, where a better tree will not thrive; and 

 according to Saunders' has succeeded when transplanted quite young, on the 

 experimental farms at Brandon, Manitoba, and at Indian Head in the North-west 

 Territories. 



Barty and Jack say : * — " Timber made from it in former times when it was fairly 

 abundant was considered to be of good size if it averaged three-quarters of a ton to a 

 tree. The wood is hard, full of pitch, and free from sap, but apt to be full of streaks. 

 It is much used for ties and railway sleepers, being one of the best woods for this 

 purpose. Certain sections of country on the south-western Miramichi, the forests on 

 which were destroyed by the great fire of 1825, have since become so thickly covered 

 by forests of Banks's pine that it is almost impossible to force one's way through the 

 trees." 



It is specially adapted for seeding burnt areas, which have resulted from time 

 immemorial by lightning striking dead trees. It produces cones at an early age, 

 often when only four or five years old ; and on adult trees many of the cones * remain 

 for years unopened on the older branches and even on the stem, the seeds retaining 

 their fertility for an indefinite period. These cones open their scales when scorched 

 by fire, and disseminate large quantities of seed, usually in spring and summer, the 

 season of the forest fires, when the seed of other species is not mature. The 

 seedlings® are very rapid in growth, often attaining ij ft. in height when only three 

 years old ; and once an area is covered with the seedlings of this pine, no other 



' Forestry Conditions of Wisconsin, 21 (1898), published as Bull. I of Wisconsin Geolog. and Nat. Hist. Survey. 



2 Cf. U.S. Forest Service Circ. 57 (1907), a planting leaflet, which gives hints concerning the cultivation of this species. 



3 Ottawa Exper. Farm Bull. No. 47, p. 46 (1904). ^ Trans. Scot. Arb. Soc. xi. p. II. 



6 Dr. Bell, in Canad. Forest. Assoc. 6th Ann. Report, 1905, p. 59, states that the cones must be scorched before the 

 seeds will escape. Many cones, however, open, like other pines, when two years old. Specimens which I collected, show 

 that the opening of the cones is very irregular ; and no explanation is forthcoming as to why some cones open and others do 

 not. Unwin, Future Forest Trees, p. 83 (1905), supposes that the cones after opening, close again in damp weather. This 

 is incorrect, as the old unopened cones contain the normal number of seeds, some of which would have escaped if the cones had 

 opened. 



« Schwappach, in Anbauversuche mit fremdldndischen Hoharten, 54 (1901), gives as instances of the very rapid growth of 

 seedlings, the average size of two-year-old plants, 8 in. ; five years old, 5 ft. ; nine years old, 10 ft. It is incorrectly stated that 

 it makes two or three shoots in a year ; the two or three whorls of branches produced are all formed in the winter bud, and 

 appear on the first and only shoot of the season. 



