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POND PINE. 
Pinüs SEROTINA. P. arbor 40-45 pedalis ; foliis terni s prœlongis ; amentis mas- 
culis erecto-incumhentihus ; strobilis ovatis, tessularum mucrone minutissimo. 
The Pond Pine frequently recurs in the maritime parts of the Southern 
States, hut is lost as it were among the Long-leaved Pines which cover 
these regions, and as it is appropriated to no use, and bears a strong family 
likeness to the rest of the genus, it has received no popular specific name ; 
that which I have given it seems sufficiently appropriate, since it grows 
principally on the borders of ponds covered with the Pond Bush, Laurus 
æstivalis, and in the small SAvamps, whose black and miry sôil is shaded by 
the Loblolly Bay, B,ed Bay, Tupelo, and Small Magnolia or White Bay. 
The leaves united to the number of 8, are 5 or 6 inches in length, and 
a little more upon young stocks. The aments are straight, and 6 or 8 lines 
long ; the cones are commonly opposite and in pairs, 2 J inches in length, 
5f inches in circumference, and in form like an egg ; their scales are 
rounded at the extremity, and armed with fine short spines which are 
easily broken off, so that in some instances no vestige is left of their exist- 
ence. The cones arrive at maturity the second year, hut do not release 
their seeds before the third or fourth. 
The ordinary size of the tree, which it rarely exceeds, is 35 or 40 feet 
in height and 15 or 18 inches in diameter. It is remarkable for the 
remoteness of its branches, which begin to spring upon the lower half of 
the' stock ; and more than half of the largest trunks consist of sap ; for 
these reasons the species is useless at home and deservedly neglected 
abroad. 
Observation. — The Pond Pine sometimes grows with the Long-leaved 
Pine in abandoned fields near the swamps. The dryness of the soil 
occasions no difference in its form. This observation is important, as the 
species under consideration is frequently confounded with the Pitch Pine, 
which it strikingly resembles. 
PLATE CXLXI. 
A branch with a cone of the natural size. Fig. 1 , A leaf. Fig. 2, A seed. 
