CHAP. CXIII. 



CON I FKR/i;. 



PI NUS. 



2281 



as the tree advances in age, it splits, and be- 

 comes rugged and grey, but does not fall 

 off in scales like that of the other pines. 

 The leaves are from 3 in. to 4 in. long, 

 straight, upright, slender, 

 soft, triquetrous, of a fine 

 light bluish green, marked 

 with silvery longitudinal 

 channels; scabrous and in- 

 conspicuously serrated on 

 the margin; spreading in 

 summer, but in winter con- 

 tracted, and lying close to 

 the branches. Sheaths and 

 stipules none, or deciduous. 

 Male catkins short, elliptic; 

 pale purple, mixed with yel- 

 low, turning red before 

 £19* they fall ; on long foot- 



stalks, and arranged like those of P. australis. 

 Crest of the anthers very small, and com- 

 posed of two erect very short bristles. Fe- 

 male catkins ovate-cylindrical ; erect, on 

 short peduncles when young, but when full 

 grown pendulous, and from 4 in. to 6 in. 

 long, slightly curved, and composed of thin 

 smooth scales, rounded at the base, and 

 partly covered with white resin, particularly 

 on the tips of the scales ; apex of the scales 

 thickened. Seeds ovate, of a dull grey. The 

 cone opens, to shed the seeds, in October 

 of the second year ; and in America, accord- 

 ing to Michaux, part of the seeds are gene- 

 rally left adhering to the turpentine which 

 exudes from the scales. The wood is soft, 

 light, free from knots, and easily wrought ; 

 it is also durable, and not very liable to 

 split when exposed to the sun : but it has 

 little strength, gives a feeble hold to nails, 



and sometimes swells from the humidity of the atmosphere ; while, from 

 the very great diminution of the trunk from the base to the summit, it is 

 difficult to procure planks of great length and uniform diameter. The 

 proportion of sap wood is very small; and, according to Michaux, a trunk 

 12 in. in diameter generally contains 11 in. of perfect wood. The wood of 

 this tree is remarkably white when newly sawn into planks ; whence the 

 common American name for it of white pine. The rate of growth of this tree 

 in Britain is, except in very favourable situations, slower than that of most 

 European pines. Nevertheless, in the climate of London, it will attain the 

 height of 12 ft. or 13 ft. in 10 years from the seed. When planted singly, 

 like most other pines, it forms a branchy head ; but, when drawn up among 

 other trees of the same species, it has as clear a trunk in Britain as in 

 America. The general appearance of the tree, when standing singly in 

 English parks and pleasure-grounds, is well represented by Jig. 2196., which 

 is the portrait, to a scale of 24 ft. to I in., of a Weymouth pine in Studley 

 Park, which, in 1836, was 60 ft. 6 in. high, with a trunk about S ft. in circum- 

 ference, at 1 ft. from the ground. 



Geography. According to Pursh, the white, or Weymouth, pine grows in 

 fertile soil, on the sides of hills, from Canada to Virginia ; attaining the largest 

 size in the state of Vermont. Michaux informs us that the tree is diffused, 



