Part 2 (1/2)

SCRUB PINE. GRAY PINE. SPRUCE PINE. JACK PINE.

=Habitat and Range.=--Sterile, sandy soil: lowlands, boggy plains, rocky slopes.

Nova Scotia, northwesterly to the Athabasca river, and northerly down the Mackenzie to the Arctic circle.

Maine,--Traveller mountain and Grand lake (G. L. Goodale); Beal's island on Was.h.i.+ngton county coast, Harrington, Orland, and Cape Rosier (C. G.

Atkins); Schoodic peninsula in Gouldsboro, a forest 30 feet high (F. M.

Day, E. L. Rand, _et al._); Flagstaff (Miss Kate Furbush); east branch of Pen.o.bscot (Mrs. Haines); the Forks (Miss f.a.n.n.y E. Hoyt); Lake Umbagog (Wm. Brewster); New Hamps.h.i.+re,--around the sh.o.r.es of Lake Umbagog, on points extending into the lake, rare (Wm. Brewster _in lit._, 1899); Welch mountains (_Bull. Torr. Bot. Club_, XVIII, 150); Vermont,--rare, but few trees at each station; Monkton in Addison county (R. E.

Robinson); Fairfax, Franklin county (Bates); Starkesboro (Pringle).

West through northern New York, northern Illinois, and Michigan to Minnesota.

=Habit.=--Usually a low tree, 15-30 feet high and 6-8 inches in diameter at the ground, but under favorable conditions, as upon the wooded points and islands of Lake Umbagog, attaining a height of 50-60 feet, with a diameter of 10-15 inches. Extremely variable in habit. In thin soils and upon bleak sites the trunk is for the most part crooked and twisted, the head scrubby, stunted, and variously distorted, resembling in shape and proportions the pitch pine under similar conditions. In deeper soils, and in situations protected from the winds, the stem is erect, slender, and tapering, surmounted by a stately head with long, flexible branches, scarcely less regular in outline than the spruce. Foliage yellowish-green, bunched at the ends of the branchlets.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk in old trees dark brown, rounded-ridged, rough-scaly at the surface; branchlets dark purplish-brown, rough with the persistent bases of the fallen leaves; season's shoots yellowish-green, turning to reddish-brown.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Branch-buds light brown, ovate, apex acute or rounded, usually enclosed in resin.

Leaves in twos, divergent from a short close sheath, about 1 inch in length and scarcely 1/12 inch in width, yellowish-green, numerous, stiff, curved or twisted, cross-section showing two fibrovascular bundles; outline narrowly linear; apex sharp-pointed; outer surface convex, inner concave or flat.

=Inflorescence.=--June. Sterile flowers at the base of the season's shoots, cl.u.s.tered, oblong-rounded: fertile flowers along the sides or about the terminal buds of the season's shoots, single, in twos or in cl.u.s.ters; bracts ovate, roundish, purplish.

=Fruit.=--Cones often numerous, 1-2 inches long, pointing in the general direction of the twig on which they grow, frequently curved at the tip, whitish-yellow when young, and brown at maturity; scales when mature without p.r.i.c.kles, thickened at the apex; outline very irregular but in general oblong-conical. The open cones, which are usually much distorted, with scales at base closed, have a similar outline.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England; slow growing and hard to transplant; useful in poor soil; seldom offered by nurserymen or collectors. Propagated from seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IV.--Pinus Banksiana.]

1. Branch with sterile flowers.

2. Stamen, front view.

3. Stamen, top view.

4. Branch with fertile flowers.

5. Ovuliferous scale with ovules, inner side.

6. Fruiting branch.

7. Open cone.

8, 9. Variant leaves.

10, 11. Cross-sections of leaves.

Pinus resinosa, Ait.

RED PINE. NORWAY PINE.

=Habitat and Range.=--In poor soils: sandy plains, dry woods.

Newfoundland and New Brunswick, throughout Quebec and Ontario, to the southern end of Lake Winnipeg.

Maine,--common, plains, Brunswick (c.u.mberland county); woods, Bristol (Lincoln county); from Amherst (western part of Hanc.o.c.k county) and Clifton (southeastern part of Pen.o.bscot county) northward just east of the Pen.o.bscot river the predominant tree, generally on dry ridges and eskers, but in Greenbush and Pa.s.sadumkeag growing abundantly on peat bogs with black spruce; hillsides and lower mountains about Moosehead, scattered; New Hamps.h.i.+re,--ranges with the pitch pine as far north as the White mountains, but is less common, usually in groves of a few to several hundred acres in extent; Vermont,--less common than _P. Strobus_ or _P. rigida_, but not rare; Ma.s.sachusetts,--still more local, in stations widely separated, single trees or small groups; Rhode Island,--occasional; Connecticut,--not reported.