Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  \ 
April,  1896.  / 
North  American  Coniferce. 
203 
one  county  of  North  Carolina  in  1893  '>  no  doubt  considerable  quanti- 
ties in  other  sections.  The  young  trees  are  the  only  ones  which 
yield  sufficiently  to  justify  boxing ;  they  yield  about  two-thirds  as 
much  turpentine  as  the  long-leaf  pine,  and  can  be  worked  from  six 
to  seven  years. 
The  lumber  of  this  tree,  while  not  held  in  the  esteem  possessed 
by  the  long-leaf  pine,  is,  nevertheless,  justly  popular.  The  wood  is 
fine-grained  and  when  devoid  of  the  sap  or  outer  portion,  is  remark- 
ably durable.  It  is  used  largely  in  ship-building,  especially  for 
masts,  spars,  etc. 
PINUS  TAEDA,  LINNE. 
LOBLOLLY  PINE,  OLD  FIELD  PINE,  FRANKINCENSE  PINE. 
GENERAL  CHARACTERS. 
The  habitat  of  the  loblolly  pine  is  southerly,  extending  from  Florida 
northward  to  southern  New  Jersey  and  Delaware,  and  westward  as 
far  as  Texas  and  Arkansas.  It  is  most  abundant  in  the  coast  region^ 
and  affects  both  wet  clay  and  dry  sandy  soils.  When  growing  in 
the  former  it  often  attains  a  height  of  100  feet  or  more,  and  pro- 
duces a  valuable  timber ;  but  in  dry  soils  it  forms  mostly  a  low,  pro- 
fusely branching  tree,  whose  wood  is  not  durable,  being  liable  to 
become  worm-eaten  and  rotten.  The  bark  is  blackish-gray,  rough, 
and  on  old  trunks  much  fissured.  The  male  flowers  are  densely 
massed,  cylindrical,  1  y2  to  2  inches  long,  with  from  ten  to  thirteen 
involucral  scales.  The  cones  are  elongated,  somewhat  pyramidal, 
deflexed,  3  to  5  inches  long,  of  rather  loose  texture,  not  hard,  and 
not  long  persisting  on  the  tree  after  shedding  their  seeds.  The 
scales  are  tipped  with  a  stout  incurved  spine.  The  seeds  have  three 
roughened  ridges  on  the  under  side. 
The  leaves  are  mostly  in  threes,  sometimes  in  twos,  6  to  10  inches 
long,  light  green,  with  a  close  sheath  about  ]/2  inch  long  at  the  base. 
On  each  of  the  two  flat  surfaces  are  from  four  to  six  rows  of  stomata, 
and  on  the  convex  one  from  nine  to  twelve  rows. 
MICROSCOPICAL  STRUCTURE. 
A  cross-section  showed  the  following  structure :  Beneath  the 
thick-walled  epidermis  was  a  two-layered  hypoderma,  the  exterior 
layer  of  which  was  composed  of  cells  with  but  moderately  thick- 
ened walls,  while  those  of  the  inner  layer  were  excessively  thick- 
ened.   The  mesophyll  did  not  differ  markedly  from  that  of  other 
