TREES 
I 
PINES 
(OF THE NATURAL ORDER OF CONIFERA:, oF THE 
FAMILY PINACE, oF THE TRIBE ABIETINE, 
OF THE SUB-TRIBE PINE) 
We paused amid the pines that stood, 
The giants of the waste, 
Tortured by storms to shapes as rude 
As serpents interlaced. 
SHELLEY, The Pine Forest. 
Tue division of Pines into the descriptions of soft 
and hard—or Pitch, as Prof. Sargent of American 
fame differentiates them—presents rather a deeper 
dip into the mysteries of the subject than most are 
desirous of fathoming. Although it is a matter of 
critical import ‘to the producer, seller, or buyer of 
timber, and to the utilitarian world at large, these 
wood-structure distinctions cannot be expected to 
arouse the same interest among those unblest with 
broad acres, or unaffected by trade interests, nor, 
for the matter of that, among the well-filled ranks 
of those who are possessed of no sky-high botanical 
aspirations, but are only prompted, in Wanderlust 
moments, by a simple-minded desire to better their 
acquaintance with the works of Nature, and by quiet 
contemplation to regain a soul lost in the turmoil 
of city occupation. 
I 
