PINE FAMILY 
surface of the scales. * As they fall away they take with them 
portions of the membranaceous lining of the scale which form 
wing-like attachments. The cotyledons vary from three to 
eighteen. Pines may be easily raised from seeds which, how- 
ever, must not be permitted to become dry as they soon lose 
their vitality. 
The world finds many of its most important timber trees 
among the Pines, and the wood is used in such enormous 
quantities that the desiruction of the forests is inevitable. 
Even if left to itself it, undoubtedly, would in course of time 
have succumbed under the hard conditions of the modern 
world; but now that man has come into the field with axe 
and torch, there is no escape, the Pine is doomed ; and must 
live hereafter, if it lives at all, as a domestic tree, the object 
of man’s care and protection, 
As Darwin states the situation, ‘The Oaks have driven 
’ The Pine is handicapped in the 
race of life because of its inability to reproduce itself with 
the vigor of other trees. As soon as it is cut down the root 
dies, there exists no power of sending forth shoots from the 
stump and forcing new growth. There are exceptions to 
this rule but this is the general law. ‘The pine seed is light, 
its vitality fleeting, and it must find favorable conditions at 
once or its chance is gone. The acorn can wait, and so the 
Pines have been steadily driven backward by the nut-bearing 
trees and especially the oaks, foot by foot, from the deep 
rich soil until the proper characterization of their habitat 
is not, “ Centres of Distribution,” but “Areas of Preserva- 
tion,” 
The following table will assist in the determination of 
species. 
the Pines to the sands.’ 
Leaves 5 ina sheath; 3' to 4’ long; cone-scales slightly thickened at the tip. 
LP. strobus. WNhite Pine. 
Leaves 2 or 3, in a sheath; cone-scales much thickened at the tip. 
I—Cones Terminal or Subterminal + 
Leaves 2 in a long sheath; 4’ to 6’ long; cone ovate-conical, 1%4' to 
24’ long, scales without prickles. P. resinous, ed Pine, 
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