2282 



AKBORCTUM AND FRUTICHTUM. 



PART III, 



2196 



J&^OT^ 



though not uniformly, over a vast extent 

 of country; but that it is incapable of 

 supporting cither intense heat or intense 

 cold. The elder Miehaux, after travers- 

 ing 300 miles, on his return from Hud- 

 son's Bay, without perceiving a vestige 

 o\' it. first observed it about 40 leagues 

 from the mouth of the Mistassin, which 

 discharges itself into the Lake St. John, 

 in Canada, in n. lat. 48° 50'. Two de- 

 grees farther south, he found it common. 

 It is, however, most abundant between 

 n. lat. 43° and N. lat. 47° : farther south, 

 it is found in the valleys and declivities 

 of the Alleghanies, but will not grow at 

 any distance from the mountains on 

 either side, on account of the warmth of 

 the climate. In New Hampshire, in 

 the state of Vermont, and near the 

 commencement of the river St. Lawrence, 

 it attains its largest dimensions. " In 

 these countries," says the younger 

 Michaux, " I have seen it in very dif- 

 ferent situations; and it seems to accommodate itself to all varieties of soil, 

 except such as consist wholly of sand, and such as are almost constantly 

 submerged ; but I have seen the largest specimens in the bottom of soft, 

 friable, and fertile valleys, on the banks of rivers composed of deep, cool, 

 black sand; and in swamps filled with the white cedar (Cupressus tfiyoides), 

 and covered with a thick and constantly humid carpet of Sphagnum. Near 

 Norridgewock, on the river Kennebeck, in one of these swamps which is 

 accessible only in the middle of summer, I measured two trunks felled for 

 canoes, of which one was 154 ft. long, and 54 in. in diameter, and the other 

 142 ft. long, and 44 in. in diameter, at 3 ft. from the ground. Mention is 

 made, in Belknap's History of New Hampshire, of a white pine felled near the 

 river Merrimac, 7 ft. 8 in. in diameter; and near Hollowell, I saw a stump 

 exceeding 6 ft. in diameter. These enormous trees had probably reached the 

 greatest height attained by the species, which is about 180 ft. I have been 

 assured, by persons worthy of belief, that, in a few instances, they had felled 

 individual trees of nearly this stature." (Afic/ix. North Amcr. *Sj//., iii. p. 161.) 

 Michaux adds that he has "always observed the influence of soil to be greater 

 on resinous than on broad-leaved trees." The qualities of the white pine, in 

 particular, are strikingly affected by it. In loose, deep, humid soils, it unites 

 in the highest degree all the valuable properties by which it is characterised, 

 especially lightness and fineness of texture, so that it may be smoothly cut in 

 every direction; and hence, perhaps, is derived the name of pumpkin pine. 

 On dry elevated lands, its wood is firmer and more resinous, with a coarser 

 grain and more distant concentric circles, and it is then called sapling pine. 

 In the district of Maine, and the province of Nova Scotia, the white pine has 

 been observed to be the first to take possession of barren deserted lands, and 

 the most hardy in resisting the impetuous gales from the ocean. 



History. Pinus .S'trobus received its name from Linnaeus, and was first 



cultivated in England by the Duchess of Beaufort, at Badmington, in 1705. 



quantities were Soon afterwards planted at Longleat, in Wiltshire, the 



of Lord Weymouth, where the trees prospered amazingly, and whence 



eived the name of the Weymouth pine. Several were also 



planted at. Mersham Hatch, in Kent; and a number at Whitton, by the Duke 



of Argyll. These plants began to bear cones with perfect seeds about 1720; 



and t .: has been since extensively raised by nurserymen, from the 



produced &< tfaetC placets; and the plants have been thus distributed 



