REPORT ON FORESTS. 239 
extensive growth. A chemical examination disappoints one in 
this respect. Very little dependence, however, can be put in 
the analysis of a soil. Although the essential ingredients may 
be present in sufficient quantity, they may not be in available 
form. A soil may be physically and chemically good, but if 
moisture is insufficient, the forest will be light and commercially 
of little importance. 
The Plains are covered with a low bushy growth of several 
species. ‘The highest tree (a sassafras) measured in this whole 
region was fifteen feet (four and one-half metres). The most 
peculiar feature of this area is the fact that a large part of the 
growth is a coppice of pine. By the natives these short, stunted 
pines are called ‘“she-pines.’* They are the stump-shoots of 
Pinus rigida, commonly called the rough-bark or pitch-pine, 
When this pine is cut many shoots sprout from the stump, but 
since insects soon attack and devour it, the young shoots usually 
die in consequence while still small and tender. There is a 
strong tendency in the pitch-pine, Pemus rigzda, to send out 
shoots, especially when growing under adverse conditions. Soon 
after a fire, with the foliage completely burned, and the bole 
girdled, many dormant buds in the crown and on the trunk 
develop into shoots, which soon, however, wither and die. 
Even logs which have been cut and hauled to the mill send 
out similar shoots. These, of course, wither and die just as 
soon as the starchy materials and moisture in the trunk are 
exhausted. ‘The poorer the soil, and more adverse. the condi- 
tions, the stronger seems the tendency to sprout from the 
stump. Sprouting in this way is rare among the conifers, and, 
although of interest botanically, is commercially of no signifi- 
cance whatever. Ordinarily a pine coppice is short-lived, but 
on the Plains it has persisted for many years. Fire sweeps over 
this region frequently and burns the shoots while still only a 
few feet high, but the stump, gnarled, charred and full of pitch, 
continues to live. Some of the stumps appear to be more than 
* The term “‘she-pine,” or ‘‘ she-pitch-pine,’”’ is also applied to Pixus heterophylla, which grows in 
the region of the Gulf of Mexico, In the language of the natives, the prefix ‘she’ indicates not sex but 
inferiority and imperfection. P, heterophylla has been regarded by the lumbermen as a tree of very 
inferior quality and of little value in comparison to the true southern pitch-pine, P. palustris. In the 
same way the term ‘she balsam-fir”’ is applied to Adies /raseri,a small, short-lived tree which inhabits 
only the high slopes of the Alleghany Mountains in Carolina and Tennessee. For the same reason the 
adjective “‘ bastard’’ is often applied to trees. 
