Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
April,  1896. 
North  American  Conifer ce. 
207 
PINUS  CUBENSIS,  GRIESBACH. 
CUBAN  PINE,  SLASH  PINE,  BASTARD  PINE,  SWAMP  PINE. 
GENERAL  CHARACTERS. 
This  pine  occurs  on  our  southern  borders  from  South  Carolina  to 
the  Florida  Keys,  and  westward  to  Louisiana ;  it  is  also  found  in 
the  West  Indies.  It  grows  in  sandy  or  wet  soil,  and  does  not  occur 
far  from  the  coast.  It  attains  a  height  of  from  80  to  100  feet  and  a 
diameter  at  the  base  of  from  2  to  3  feet,  and  has  a  laminated,  red- 
dish-brown bark.  The  staminate  flowers  are  from  1  y2  to  2  inches 
long,  many  in  a  head,  and  each  subtended  by  an  involucre  of  about 
twelve  bracts.  The  cones  are  mostly  in  clusters  of  from  two  to  four, 
long-conical,  4  or  5  inches  long,  brown,  the  thickened  scales  armed 
with  a  short  and  usually  stout,  but  sometimes  rather  slender  prickle. 
Its  wood  is  heavy,  tough,  resinous,  with  rather  small  secretion 
reservoirs,  compact  and  durable. 
The  leaves  of  the  Cuban  pine  are  in  twos  or  threes,  about  9  or  10 
inches  long,  rounded  on  the  outer  and  flattish  on  the  inner  surface, 
and  subtended  at  the  base  by  a  prominent  sheath  about  y2  inch  in 
length.  The  stomata  are  in  about  six  rows  on  the  flat,  and  in  from 
eleven  to  thirteen  on  the  rounded  surface. 
MICROSCOPICAL  STRUCTURE. 
A  cross  section  of  the  leaf  showed  an  epidermis  of  very  thick- 
walled  cells,  supported  by  a  two-layered  hypoderma,  the  outer  layer 
of  which  was  made  up  of  cells  with  but  slightly  thickened  walls, 
while  the  inner  was  composed  of  very  thick-walled  cells.  The  meso- 
phyll,  which  abounds  in  tannic  matters,  presented  no  special  pecu- 
liarities. 
The  secretion  reservoirs  were  from  four  to  six  in  number,  located 
in  the  mesophyll,  rather  nearer  the  endodermis  than  the  hypoderma, 
and  those  nearest  the  angles  of  the  leaf  were  the  largest.  The 
sheathing  cells  had  walls  which  were  but  slightly  thickened.  The 
conspicuous  endodermis  had  only  its  radial  walls  perceptibly  thick- 
ened. The  transfusion  tissue,  which  presented  the  usual  structure 
and  arrangement  of  its  cells,  surrounds  two  diverging  bundles,  each 
about  four-rayed. 
The  cells  between  the  inner  ends  of  the  xylem  masses  were  very 
loosely  arranged,  showing  lacunae  of  considerable  size.  Occasional 
thick-walled  fibres  were  recognizable  at   the  outer  ends   of  the 
