CONIFERS. 



133 



All the Strobus Pines produce a pure and limpid resin, wliicli is rich, 

 in saccharine ; and which when roasted and refined is used by the 

 natives of some parts of the world as sugar : this resin or juice is also 

 highly odoriferous, perfuming each and all of the component parts of 

 the tree with a sweet-smelling fragrance. 



The timber, when grown in temperate or cold climates, declivitous 

 localities, and medium or high altitudes ; and in loamy, gravelly, porous, 

 or sandy soils, or stony debris ; where the mineral constituents and 

 earth oils, and granite, quartz, sand, or silex-stone are present in the 

 substrata, would be tolerably hard, fine-grained, compact, light, tough, 

 easily wrought, capable of a good polish, resinous, fragrant, tolerably 

 durable; and creamy- white, or yellowish; and shaded with brown 

 when matured and seasoned ; while if grown in valleys, low-lying 

 lands, warm localities, and sheltered situations, where the soil were a 

 rich loam or clay ; or in any soil rich in vegetable humis or aqueous 

 deposits ; then the size and beauty of the tree would be increased and 

 the quality of the timber reduced to soft, porous, spongy, mushroom 

 wood : while in cold, close, peaty, or marshy soils, if wet ; or where 

 the surface soil was very thin and shallow, the substrata hard and im- 

 pervious ; where lime-stone pure and simple, or as alkaline or dolomite, 

 in a liquid or powdered state was present in quantity ; where coal was 

 in inclined strata and crop-out, or the upper strata charged with carbo- 

 niferous matter ; then would the Strobus Pines produce but little 

 timber, and add but little to the landscape's beauty ; for the pro- 

 bability would be that after a few years languishing they would soon 

 die. 



The greater portion of the woods of commerce as known and vended 

 by such names as : — white deal, yellow deal, Canadian Pine, pumpkin 

 Pine, Virginian Pine ; also, much of the Indian ^'Kaeel," "Leem," and 



Yari; " likewise much of the Mexican Blanco-Pine," " Ocote-Chino 

 Pine," and " Eeal Pine," are the timber produced by our Pinus Strobus 

 and its quasi-species. 



From what has already been stated it will be inferred that Strobus is 

 a Pine of various heights and diameters ; individually, the prototype 

 may be described as ranging from one hundred to two hundred feet, 

 when grown under favourable conditions ; while the mean of this may 

 be taken as the average maximum, and the same may be said of its few 

 large or gigantic forms or quasi-species ; but the most of these as well 

 as the varieties and sub-varieties range from forty to eighty feet in 

 height ; and some of them from twenty to forty feet ; while a few of 



