2 
PINETUM BRITANNICUM. 
<jo 
in diameter. Scales [fig. 7] long and rather narrow, the Tides finuate, apophyfis rhomboidal or penta¬ 
gonal, with a tranfverfe line or impreffion, (lightly depreffed towards the centre, in which there is a narrow 
fub-pyramidal tranfverfe umbo, about two lines in its largeft (tranfverfe) diameter, and armed with a fhort, 
ftrong, fharp, and hard, (lightly curved prickle or fpine, projedting outwards and forwards, 
about a line in length. The feeds are frnall, but the wing is difproportionately long, being an 
inch or even nearly an inch and a half in length [fig. 8]. 
Lambert figures, under the name of alopecuroidea, the cone of what he confidered a variety 
of this fpecies; and Loudon mentions a plant of it as exifting in the Horticultural Society’s 
Garden. It is not there now; but as Loudon confidered it not didincl from this fpecies, and as 
the cone figured is obvioufly an immature specimen, which, moreover, has been pronounced to b <tpungens 
by Carriere, serotina by Purfh, and rigida by someone else, we may be excufed from taking further note of 
the variety. 
Defcription. —Lambert, on the authority of Wangenheim, fays this is a low tree (arbor humilis), 
full of branches, and attaining but moderate strength. This is a miftake, as is pointed out by Michaux, 
who fays that, on the contrary, it is, next to the White Pine ( P . Jlrobus ), the tailed tree of its genus 
in the United States. Even already, in this country, it has reached a height of 80 feet. Its 
diameter rarely exceeds two or three feet. It has a wide-fpreading fummit. Its foliage is open, of a fine 
light green, and the leaves rather long and tufted. The cones are green in their youth, and of a darkifh 
olive brown when ripe. The bark is rather light in hue, and, when old, becomes deeply corrugated and 
fplit. The bloom takes place in the beginning of April, not the latter end of Augud, as was faid by 
Lambert, apparently on the authority of Wangenheim, who must have meant the cones which fall from the 
trees in the fird year, as foon as they are ripe: in this refpedt differing from fome of the fpecies allied to it, 
fuch as Pinus rigida , P. tuberctdata, &c., in which the cones (as indeed is the cafe with mod of the three- 
leavecl Pines) adhere to the tree for a longer period, fometimes for many years. 
Geographical Difiribution. —The range of this fpecies extends with intermiffions throughout the fouth- 
eadern provinces of North America, commencing at the north of Virginia, and extending fouthwards into 
Llorida. Wangenheim, and after him Lambert, fays that it is found in Pennfylvania. It no doubt was 
fo when the former wrote (1787), but it is not fo now. Michaux notes this, and remarks that the mod 
northerly point where he obferved it was near the now claffic military ground of Lredericksburg, 230 miles 
fouth of Philadelphia. 
It grows nowhere continuoudy, however, a barren fandy foil being what it prefers. As dated by 
Michaux, it grows in the lower part of Virginia, and in the didribts of North Carolina, fituated north-ead 
of the river Cape Lear, over an extent of nearly 200 miles, where the foil is dry and fandy. On fpots 
confiding of red clay mingled with gravel, it is fupplanted by the Yellow Pine, and by different varieties of 
Oak. The two Pines are regularly alternated according to the variations of the foil, and frequently vanifh 
and reappear at intervals of four or five miles. Thefe alternations are noticed by Sir Charles Lyell, who 
(‘ Travels in North America,’ vol. 1. p. 142) tells us that the fands of the “ Pine Barrens” on which the 
long-leaved or Pitch Pines, Pinus Tezda and P. palujlris , flourifh, are derived from drata of more than 
one tertiary period; and there are interdratified beds of clay which, whenever they come to the furface in 
valleys, caufe fwamps, where peculiar kinds of Evergreen Oaks, the Cyprefs or Cedar ( Taxodium dijlichum ), 
tall canes, and other plants abound. “ The Pine Barrens,” fays he, “retain much of their verdure in winter, 
and were intereding to me from the uniformity and monotony of their general aspecd; for they conditute 
from their vad extent one of the marked features in the geography of the globe, like the Pampas of South 
America.” They extend in a broad belt many hundred miles in length from New Jerfey to Georgia, 
running parallel to the coad in the region called the Atlantic plain. 
In the lower parts of Virginia, this fpecies exclufively occupies lands that have been exhauded by 
cultivation; 
Fig. 8. 
