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PINES. 
The Pines are evergreen trees, and are generally of elevated stature. 
They form a most interesting genus, and are highly valuable for the resin- 
ous matter which they afford, as well as for the excellent properties of their 
wood. The most stinking difference between the Pine and the Spruce is 
in the arrangement of their foliage ; the leaves of the Pines, which resemble 
pieces of coarse thread, vary in length in different species, and are united 
to the number of two, three or five in the same sheath; those of the 
Spruces, on the contrary, are only a few lines long, and are attached singly 
round the circumference of the branch or upon its opposite sides. 
To facilitate the distinction of these trees, of which the species are more 
numerous in the United States than in Europe, I have grouped the Pines 
according to the roughness of their cones and to the number of leaves 
united in the same sheath, and the Spruces according to the disposition of 
their foliage. 
[See Nuttall’s Supplement, Yol. 3, p. 106 ; et seq., for a variety of new 
and valuable Pines.] 
\_Soil, Propagation , $c . — The debris of granitic rocks may be considered 
as the universal soil suited to the Pine and Fir tribe, and a dry subsoil an 
essential condition for their entire prosperity, but they will grow on all 
soils whatever, that are not surcharged with water. The roots are near 
the surface, and hence do not require a deep soil ; and as their needlè-like 
leaves do not carry off much moisture by evaporation, their soil may be 
drier than that required for any other kind of tree. Nevertheless, a soil 
somewhat loamy, and a cool subsoil, are necessary to bring the timber of 
the Pine to its greatest perfection. Wherever the Abietinæ are to be ex- 
posed to high winds, they require to be planted in masses, so as to shelter 
one another, but none of the species become ornamental when so planted ; 
because they necessarily lose their side branches. 
The only mode of propagating the Pine and Fir tribe on a large scale 
is by seeds ; but all the species will succeed by layers, by inarching on closely 
