RED PINE 



prickle. Seeds oval, compressed, one-eighth of an inch long, chest- 

 nut brown, mottled ; wings three-quarters of an incli long one-quarter 

 wide, broadest below the middle. 



The Red Pine is a northern tree and finds its most con- 

 genial home in Newfoiuidland and westward along the north- 

 ern shore of the St. Lawrence, through Ontario and Mani- 

 toba, coming but sparingly into the United States. It does 

 not make close forests, hence' it is not a timber tree. It 

 grows when possible in the open ; in the forest one looks for 

 it at the edge of a lake where, at least, it may have light and 

 air and freedom on one side. It is usually found alone on 

 dry, sandy, gravelly or rocky places, never on flat lands with 

 cold clay bottoms. It is a very beautiful tree. The branches 

 are in distinct wdiorls, the branchlets are stout and covered 

 with a thick false bark, composed of the bases of the leaf 

 scales which run down along the stem. The leaves are four 

 to six inches long, in clusters of two, and form very conspicu- 

 ous tufts at the end of the branchlets. The sheaths arc long 

 and it is a common amusement among children to pull out one 

 leaf, put the point of the remaining one into the vacant place, 

 and so make a link of a leafy chain. 



The glory of the Red Pine is its staminate blossoms. 

 Imagine a tree, eighteen inches m diameterand fifty feet high, 

 branching near the ground as regularly as an oak and stand- 

 ing in an open space on the bank of a nortliern lake. Tlie 

 dark green leaves covered with pale bloom give a shim- 

 mering effect as they respond to the slightest movements of 

 the wind. From top to bottom, on the tip of every branch 

 may be seen in early spring the dark red tassels of staminate 

 blossoms, short and thick and crowded forming a cluster that 

 so far as effect goes is a deep red rose. The supreme mo- 

 ment is brief, the flowers wither very soon, cast tlieir pollen 

 to the wind and are gone. Well developed Red Pine trees 

 are so rare in northern Minnesota that they are landmarks ; 

 the finest are found on the Indian reservations where they 

 have escaped the axe and the torch. The cones are short, 

 unarmed, ovate-conical, a bright cinnamon brown like the 



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