Handbook of the Trees of New England | Page 5

ending in long spire-like shoots; branchlets numerous, head conical, symmetrical while the tree is young, especially when growing in open swamps; when old extremely variable, occasionally with contorted or drooping limbs; foliage pale green, turning to a dull yellow in autumn.
=Bark.=--Bark of trunk reddish or grayish brown, separating at the surface into small roundish scales in old trees, in young trees smooth; season's shoots gray or light brown in autumn.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, globular, reddish.
Leaves simple, scattered along the season's shoots, clustered on the short, thick dwarf branches, about an inch long, pale green, needle-shaped; apex obtuse; sessile.
=Inflorescence.=--March to April. Flowers lateral, solitary, erect; the sterile from leafless, the fertile from leafy dwarf branches; sterile roundish, sessile; anthers yellow: fertile oblong, short-stalked; bracts crimson or red.
=Fruit.=--Cones upon dwarf branches, erect or inclining upwards, ovoid to cylindrical, 1/2-3/4 of an inch long, purplish or reddish brown while growing, light brown at maturity, persistent for at least a year; scales thin, obtuse to truncate; edge entire, minutely toothed or erose; seeds small, winged.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England; grows in any good soil, preferring moist locations; the formal outline of the young trees becomes broken, irregular, and picturesque with age, making the mature tree much more attractive than the European species common to cultivation. Rarely for sale in nurseries, but obtainable from collectors. To be successfully transplanted, it must be handled when dormant. Propagated from seed.
=Note.=--The European species, with which the mature plant is often confused, has somewhat longer leaves and larger cones; a form common in cultivation has long, pendulous branches.
[Illustration: PLATE I.--Larix Americana.]
1. Branch with sterile and fertile flowers. 2. Sterile flowers. 3. Different views of stamens. 4. Ovuliferous scale with ovules. 5. Fruiting branch. 6. Open cone. 7. Cone-scale with seeds. 8. Leaf. 9. Cross-section of leaf.
PINUS.
The leaves are of two kinds, primary and secondary; the primary are thin, deciduous scales, in the axils of which the secondary leaf-buds stand; the inner scales of those leaf-buds form a loose, deciduous sheath which encloses the secondary or foliage leaves, which in our species are all minutely serrulate.
Pinus Strobus, L.
WHITE PINE.
=Habitat and Range.=--In fertile soils; moist woodlands or dry uplands.
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, through Quebec and Ontario, to Lake Winnipeg.
New England,--common, from the vicinity of the seacoast to altitudes of 2500 feet, forming extensive forests.
South along the mountains to Georgia, ascending to 2500 feet in the Adirondacks and to 4300 in North Carolina; west to Minnesota and Iowa.
=Habit.=--The tallest tree and the stateliest conifer of the New England forest, ordinarily from 50 to 80 feet high and 2-4 feet in diameter at the ground, but in northern New England, where patches of the primeval forest still remain, attaining a diameter of 3-7 feet and a height ranging from 100 to 150 feet, rising in sombre majesty far above its deciduous neighbors; trunk straight, tapering very gradually; branches nearly horizontal, wide-spreading, in young trees in whorls usually of five, the whorls becoming more or less indistinct in old trees; branchlets and season's shoots slender; head cone-shaped, broad at the base, clothed with soft, delicate, bluish-green foliage; roots running horizontally near the surface, taking firm hold in rocky situations, extremely durable when exposed.
=Bark.=--On trunks of old trees thick, shallow-channeled, broad-ridged; on stems of young trees and upon branches smooth, greenish; season's shoots at first rusty-scurfy or puberulent, in late autumn becoming smooth and light russet brown.
=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Leading branch-buds 1/4-1/2 inch long, oblong or ovate-oblong, sharp-pointed; scales yellowish-brown.
Foliage leaves in clusters of five, slender, 3-5 inches long, soft bluish-green, needle-shaped, 3-sided, mucronate, each with a single fibrovascular bundle, sessile.
=Inflorescence.=--June. Sterile flowers at the base of the season's shoots, in clusters, each flower about one inch long, oval, light brown; stamens numerous; connectives scale-like: fertile flowers near the terminal bud of the season's shoots, long-stalked, cylindrical; scales pink-margined.
=Fruit.=--Cones, 4-6 inches long, short-stalked, narrow-cylindrical, often curved, finally pendent, green, maturing the second year; scales rather loose, scarcely thickened at the apex, not spiny; seeds winged, smooth.
=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy throughout New England; free from disease; grows well in almost any soil, but prefers a light fertile loam; in open ground retains its lower branches for many years. Good plants, grown from seed, are usually readily obtainable in nurseries; small collected plants from open ground can be moved in sods with little risk.
Several horticultural forms are occasionally cultivated which are distinguished by variations in foliage, trailing branches, dense and rounded heads, and dwarfed or cylindrical habits of growth.
PLATE II. PINUS STROBUS.
1. Branch with sterile flowers. 2. Stamen. 3. Branch with fertile flowers. 4. Bract and ovuliferous scale, outer side. 5. Ovuliferous scale with ovules, inner side. 6. Branch with cones. 7. Cross-section of leaf.
Pinus rigida, Mill.
PITCH PINE. HARD PINE.
=Habitat and Range.=--Most common in dry, sterile soils, occasional in swamps.
New Brunswick to Lake Ontario.
Maine,--mostly in the southwestern section