372 



THE NATI^T: trees of west VIRGINIA. 



Pocahontas : few on Knapps creek. 



Randolph : on hillsides above Huttonsville. 



Eitchie : few with other softwoods. 



Wayne : few trees found near TTajTie Court House. 



T\>oming: infrequent. 

 Wood. — Soft, light, brittle, coarse-grained, decays slowly when 



placed in contact with the soil. 

 Uses. — Of little value as a timber tree. Wood used for boxes, 



crates, fencing, ties, and fuel. 



PINUS PUNGENS, Michx. Table Mountain Pine. Hickory 



Pine. 



Geographic Distribution. 



Dry gravelly slopes and ridges of the Appalachian mountains 

 from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, 

 sometimes ascending to elevations of 3,000 feet, vith isolated 

 outlying stations in Virginia, eastern Pennsylvania, and A^-este^n 

 New Jersey; often forming to\\-ard the southern limits of its 

 range pure forests of considerable extent. 



Distribution in West Yirginia. — Found scattered sparingly with 

 other kinds of softwoods in Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, and 

 Pendleton. Reported by MUspaugh from Kanawha and 

 Mineral. 



Wood. — Coarse-grained, brittle, light. 



Uses. — Not valuable for lumber, used for fuel and charcoal. 



LARIX AMERICANA, Michx. Tamarack. Larch. 



Geograph ic Distribution. 



At the north often on v%-ell-drained uplands, southward in cold 

 deep svramps which it often clothes with forests of closely crowd- 

 ed trees, from Labrador to the Arctic Circle, ranging west of the 

 Rocky Mountains to latitude 65 degrees and 35 minutes north, 

 and southward through Canada and the northern states to north- 

 ern Pennsylvania and Preston county. Vv^est Yirginia, northern 

 Indiana and Illinois, and central Minnesota, and along the eastern 

 foothills of the Rocky ]Mountains to about latitude 53 degrees; 

 very abundant in the interior of Labrador, where it is the largest 

 tree; common along the margins of the barren lands stretching 

 beyond the sub-Arctic forest to the shores of the Arctic sea: at- 

 taining its largest size north of Lake Winnipeg on low benches 

 which it occasionally covers with open forests; rare and local to- 

 ward the southern limits of its range. 



