38 FAMILIAR TREES 



tinct position, so that the veriest tyro would have- 

 little difficulty in at once recognising one of the 

 seventy or more species known to botanists. 

 The evergreen needles grouped together in twos, 

 threes, or fives on the dwarf shoots are at once 

 conclusive on this point ; and these three methods 

 of grouping afford the most obvious basis for the. 

 subdivision of this comparatively large genus. For 

 our present purposes the following grouping will 

 suffice. 



Section Pinea. Two ~ needles on each dwarf 

 shoot. 



P. Pinaster Ait. The Cluster or Maritime Pine.; 



P. Lari'cio Poir. The Corsican or Larch -Pine. 



P. Pinea L. The Stone Pine. 



P. sylves'tris L. The Northern Pine or Scots Fir. 



Section Tjeda. Three needles on each dwarf shoot. 



P- Tceda L. The Loblolly Pine of America. 



T. palus'tris Mill. The Pitch Pine. 



Section Stro'bus. Five needles on each dwarf 

 shoot. 



P. Stro'bus L. The Weymouth or White Pine. 



P- Gembra L. The Swiss Stone Pine or Siberian 

 Cedar. 



The shape of the leaves as seen in transverse 

 section depends on the number of leaves in a fascicle, 

 those of the Section Pinea being plano-convex, 

 those of Tceda presenting an obtuse-angled triangle 

 with a curved base, and those of Btrobus an acute- 

 angled triangle. 



The Cluster Pine (Pinus Pinaster Ait) is a 

 large, handsome tree of pyramidal form, reaching a 



