PIKtJS ETEOBUS. 183 



soil. It is more esteemed by the Japanese gardeners than any other 

 Pine ; they cultivate it assiduously, dwarfing it to the smallest possible 

 dimensions, or training it into all kinds of fanciful shapes. 



The specific name parviflora, refers to the small size of the male 

 catkins, which are very numerous, and thickly crowded into a cjdin- 

 ch'ical spike, 1 to 2 inches long. 



Pinus Strobus. — A tall tree, rising in a straight column, from 120 

 to 160 feet high in cool and damp woods in its native country, 

 generally divested of branches for the greater part of its height, and 

 with a conical top. In England the habit of P. Strobus varies accord- 

 ing to the soil in which it is growing; in loamy and heavy land the 

 branches are spreading and usually well furnished with foliage; in dry 

 sandy land, and in exposed places, the branches are short and the 

 foliage tufted at their extremities. In the young state the bark is 

 greyish-brown and quite smooth; in old trees it is rugged on the 

 trunk and principal branches. The leaves are from 3 to 5 inches long, 

 slender, soft, light green, marked with silvery lines, spreading in 

 summer but contracted or pendulous in winter.* The cones are from 

 6 to 8 inches long, cylindrical, tapering, and slightly curved; the 

 scales are smooth, thickened at the apex, and during the growing 

 season covered with white resin. 



Habitat. — North America, the eastern portion of the continent from 

 latitude 50° N, southwards to the Alleghanies as far as Georgia, 

 and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. 

 Introduced into England in 1705. 



Pinus Strobus nana is a small, compact, bushy shrub, with short 

 slender branches and numerous branchlets. The leaves are shorter than 

 those of the species, and densely clustered at the extremities of the 

 branchlets. 



Other varieties named respectively— aurea, compacta, nivea, variegata,- 

 and viridis, have been in cultivation, but are now rarely met with. 



Pinus Strobus is one of the most important of the American timber 

 trees, and great numbers are felled every year, and sent to ■ Europe, 

 under the name of White Pine. It is very abundant in the New 

 England States. "It is also common all over Canada, and is one of 

 the most valuable of the timber trees of that coiuitry, being durable, 



* This peculiarity has been observed in other Pines of the Strobus section ; in Pinus 

 excelsa, P. Lmriberiiana, P. monticola, kc, 



