Handbook of Tkejes of the Noetheen States and Canada. 15 



Tliis valuable timber-tree occasionally at- 

 tains the height of lOU ft., or somewliat more, 

 with irregular wide pyramidal or rounded 

 head and straight columnar trunk 3-4 ft. in 

 thickness. Its bark is of a reddish brown 

 color with wide irregular scaly plates and 

 ridges. It is particularly abundant and well 

 developed in the lower Mississippi basin and 

 probably no other Pine produces as much 

 lumber for use in the central-western states as 

 this. 



The wood, as a hard Pine, is considered only 

 second to that of the Long-leaf Pine in value, 

 and in being somewhat softer and less resin- 

 ous than that is preferred to it for many 

 uses. It is rather heavy and hard, a cu. ft 

 weighing 38.04 lbs., and of a reddish yellow 

 color with thick lighter sap-wood. It is 

 largely manufactured into lumber for interior 

 finishing and general construction purposes. 2 



Leaves 3--~» in. long in clusters of 2 (occasion- 

 ally 3) with persistent sheaths, rather slender, 

 flexible, dark green ; branchlets roii2;h. Flowers: 

 staminate yellowish purple, about % in. long, in 

 crowded clusters ; pistillate pale rose-color, single 

 or in whorls of 2 or 3 with stout stems. Cones 

 oblong-ovoid, 11/2-2 in. long, single or few to- 

 gether, subsessile, lateral and with scales thickened 

 at apex and having a prominent transverse ridge 

 and weak prickle ; seeds round-triangular, about 

 three-sixteenths in, long, mottled and with ample 

 oblique wing broadest near the center. 



1. Syn. Plnus mitis Michx. 



2. A. W., Ill, 75. 



