CHAPTER VIII. 

 OUR NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CONIFERS. 



PInus Bankslana (Plnus. Divarlcata) called Jack Pine or 

 Scrub Pine. This is differently described by people in different 

 localities. Newhall calls it a small evergreen tree, or often a 

 shrub nine to thirty feet high, with long spreading branches and 

 wood of but little value. 



Prof. S. B. Green on the other hand says "This tree under 

 favorable ciroumstances will occasionally attain a heignt of 125 

 feet with a diameter of 12 Inohes." The fact is they differ much 

 in their respective locations. In some portions of Wisconsin and 

 Minnesota the forests are packed and crowded with them, 

 much like the Lodge Pole Pine of the West. A single acre 

 will yield 40 or 50 cords of wood and a good deal of framing tim- 

 ber; the timber is not worthless. It makes a tremendous 

 growth while young. Plant it side by side with thei Black Hills 

 Spruce and in a, short time it will be five or six times as large 

 as the latter, and its growth in the sands of Nebraska is phe- 

 nomeqial. It has short needles, two in a sheath. It has many 

 whorls or systems of branches which are thrown out in a single 

 season and is unlike other Pines in this respect for they will send 

 up a single system of branches and make one vigorous push in 

 June and that ends it. The rapid growth of this tree while 

 young, surpassing a dozen other kinds beside it, makes it very 

 valuable for the speedy work of foresting. Probably in the 

 long runi the Scotch, Ponderosa, and Austrian will surpass it, 

 but its tremendous vigor in youth makes it a favorite for tim- 

 ber plantations. It would doubtless make a fine nurse tree to 

 shelter the White Pine, Red Pine, and Douglas Spruce, which 

 with their peculiar foliage, cannot so well resist the winds and 

 storms in the open, unprotected. 



The Pinus Virginiana is much like the Jack Pine. It 

 grows on the sands of Long Island, New Jersey, Virginia and 

 other portions of the South. 



Neither of these should ever be planted as ornamental trees. 

 The Jack Pine has persistent cones which hang on year by year, 

 constantly reinforced by successive cones which give the tree 

 a ragged appearance. They commence seeding quite young and 

 though fair in appearance at first they soon become unsightly. 



Table Mountains or Pinus Pungens. This grows along the 

 Allegheny mountains and upon table mountains in North Caro- 

 lina. It is often fifty feet tall and is much used for charcoal. 

 I have tested this in York. One to which I paid special atten- 

 tion died and I gave the rest to our city park where they are 

 doing fairly well. They might do to make up •&, collection, but 

 they havfe no special merit over other Conifers. 



The Norway Pine — Pinus Resinosa, Also Pinus Rubra, or Red 

 Pine This has very long needles two in a sheath, which give 

 the branches a plume shape, making a very beautiful tree. Its 

 range is much farther north than that of the White Pine. In 

 appearance it somewhat resembles the long leaved Pine of the 



