Part 8

Distribution. From Nova Scotia to the valley of the Athabasca River and down the Mackenzie to about latitude 65° north, ranging southward to the coast of Maine, northern New Hampshire and Vermont, the Island of Nantucket (Wauwinet, _J. W. Harshburger_), northern New York, the shores of Saginaw Bay, Michigan, the southern shores of Lake Michigan in Illinois, the valley of the Wisconsin River, Wisconsin, and central and southeastern Minnesota (with isolated groves in Root River valley, near Rushford, Fillmore County); abundant in central Michigan, covering tracts of barren lands; common and of large size in the region north of Lake Superior; most abundant and of its greatest size west of Lake Winnipeg and north of the Saskatchewan, here often spreading over great areas of sandy sterile soil.

22. Pinus glabra Walt. Spruce Pine. Cedar Pine.

Leaves soft, slender, dark green, 1½′—3′ long, marked by numerous rows of stomata, deciduous at the end of their second and in the spring of their third year. Flowers: male in short crowded clusters, yellow; female raised on slender slightly ascending peduncles. Fruit single or in clusters of 2 or 3, reflexed on short stout stalks, subglobose to oblong-ovoid, ½′—2′ long, becoming reddish brown and rather lustrous, with thin slightly concave scales armed with minute straight or incurved usually deciduous prickles; seeds nearly triangular, full and rounded on the sides, ⅛′ long, with a thin dark gray shell mottled with black and wings broadest below the middle, ⅝′ long, ¼′ wide.

A tree, usually 80°—100° or occasionally 120° high, with a trunk 2°—2½° or rarely 3½° in diameter, comparatively small horizontal branches, and slender flexible branchlets at first light red more or less tinged with purple, ultimately dark reddish brown. Bark of young trees and upper trunks smooth pale gray becoming on old stems ½′—¾′ thick, slightly and irregularly divided by shallow fissures into flat connected ridges. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, close-grained, light brown, with thick nearly white sapwood; occasionally used for fuel and rarely manufactured into lumber.

Distribution. Valley of the lower Santee River, South Carolina to middle and northwestern Florida; banks of the Alabama River, Dallas County, Alabama; eastern and southwestern Mississippi, and sandy banks of streams in northeastern Louisiana; usually growing singly or in small groves; attaining its largest size and often occupying areas of considerable extent in northwestern Florida.

23. Pinus echinata Mill. Yellow Pine. Short-leaved Pine.

Leaves in clusters of 2 and of 3, slender, flexible, dark blue-green, 3′—5′ long, beginning to fall at the end of their second season and dropping irregularly until their fifth year. Flowers: male in short crowded clusters, pale purple; female in clusters of 2 or 3 on stout ascending stems, pale rose color. Fruit ovoid to oblong-conic, subsessile and nearly horizontal or short-stalked and pendant, generally clustered, 1½′—2½′ long, becoming dull brown, with thin scales nearly flat below and rounded at the apex, armed with short straight or somewhat recurved frequently deciduous prickles; seeds nearly triangular, full and rounded on the sides, about 3/16′ long, with a thin pale brown hard shell conspicuously mottled with black, their wings broadest near the middle, ½′ long, ⅛′ wide.

A tree, usually 80°—100° occasionally 120° high, with a tall slightly tapering trunk 3°—4° in diameter, a short pyramidal truncate head of comparatively slender branches, and stout brittle pale green or violet-colored branchlets covered at first with a glaucous bloom, becoming dark red-brown tinged with purple before the end of the first season, their bark beginning in the third year to separate into large scales. Bark of the trunk ¾′—1′ thick and broken into large irregularly shaped plates covered with small closely appressed light cinnamon-red scales. Wood very variable in quality, and in the thickness of the nearly white sapwood, heavy, hard, strong and usually coarse-grained, orange-colored or yellow-brown; largely manufactured into lumber.

Distribution. Long Island (near Northport), and Staten Island, New York, and southern Pennsylvania to northern Florida, and westward through the Gulf states to eastern Texas, through Arkansas to southwestern Oklahoma (near Page, Leflore County, _G. W. Stevens_) and to southern Missouri and southwestern Illinois and to eastern Tennessee and western West Virginia; most abundant and of its largest size west of the Mississippi River.

24. Pinus virginiana Mill. Jersey Pine. Scrub Pine.

Leaves in remote clusters, stout, gray-green, 1½′—3′ long, marked by many rows of minute stomata, gradually and irregularly deciduous during their third and fourth years. Flowers: male in crowded clusters, orange-brown; female on opposite spreading peduncles near the middle of the shoots of the year, generally a little below and alternate with 1 or 2 lateral branchlets, pale green, 2′—3′ long, the scale-tips tinged with rose color. Fruit ovoid-conic, often reflexed, dark red-brown and lustrous, with thin nearly flat scales, and stout or slender persistent prickles, opening in the autumn and slowly shedding their seeds, turning dark reddish brown and remaining on the branches for three or four years; seeds nearly oval, full and rounded, ¼′ long, with a thin pale brown rough shell, their wings broadest at the middle, ⅓′ long, about ⅛′ wide.

A tree, usually 30°—40° high, with a short trunk rarely more than 18′ in diameter, long horizontal or pendulous branches in remote whorls forming a broad open often flat-topped pyramid, and slender tough flexible branchlets at first pale green or green tinged with purple and covered with a glaucous bloom, becoming purple and later light gray-brown; toward the western limits of its range a tree frequently 100° tall, with a trunk 2½°—3° in diameter. Bark of the trunk ¼′—½′ thick, broken by shallow fissures into flat plate-like scales separating on the surface into thin closely appressed dark brown scales tinged with red. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, durable in contact with the soil, light orange color, with thick nearly white sapwood; often used for fuel and occasionally manufactured into lumber.

Distribution. Middle and southern New Jersey; Plymouth, Luzerne County, and central, southern and western Pennsylvania to Columbia County, Georgia, Dallas County, Alabama (near Selma, _T. G. Harbison_), and to the hills of northeastern Mississippi (Bear Creek near its junction with the Tennessee River, _E. N. Lowe_), through eastern and middle Tennessee to western Kentucky and to southeastern and southern (Scioto County) Ohio, and southern Indiana; usually small in the Atlantic states and only on light sandy soil, spreading rapidly over exhausted fields; of its largest size west of the Alleghany Mountains on the low hills of southern Indiana.

25. Pinus clausa Sarg. Sand Pine. Spruce Pine.

Leaves slender, flexible, dark green, 2′—3½′ long, marked by 10—20 rows of stomata, deciduous during their third and fourth years. Flowers: male in short crowded spikes, dark orange color; female lateral on stout peduncles. Fruit elongated ovoid-conic, often oblique at base, usually clustered and reflexed, 2′—3½′ long, nearly sessile or short-stalked, with convex scales armed with short stout straight or recurved prickles, becoming dark yellow-brown in autumn; some of the cones opening at once, others remaining closed for three or four years before liberating their seeds, ultimately turning to an ashy gray color; others still unopened becoming enveloped in the growing tissues of the stem and branches and finally entirely covered by them; seeds nearly triangular, compressed, ¼′ long, with a black slightly roughened shell, their wings widest near or below the middle, ¾′ long, about ¼′ wide.

A tree, usually 15°—20° high, with a stem rarely a foot in diameter, generally clothed to the ground with wide-spreading branches forming a bushy flat-topped head, and slender tough flexible branchlets, pale yellow-green when they first appear, becoming light orange-brown and ultimately ashy gray; occasionally growing to the height of 70°—80° with a trunk 2° in diameter. Bark on the lower part of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, deeply divided by narrow fissures into irregularly shaped generally oblong plates separating on the surface into thin closely appressed bright red-brown scales; on the upper part of the trunk and on the branches thin, smooth, ashy gray. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, light orange color or yellow, with thick nearly white sapwood; occasionally used for the masts of small vessels.

Distribution. Coast of the Gulf of Mexico from southern Alabama to Peace Creek, western Florida; eastern Florida from the neighborhood of St. Augustine to New River, Dade County, covering sandy wind-swept plains near the coast; growing to its largest size and most abundant in the interior of the peninsula (Lake and Orange Counties).

26. Pinus muricata D. Don. Prickle-cone Pine.

Leaves in crowded clusters, thick, rigid, dark yellow-green, 4′—6′ long, beginning to fall in their second year. Flowers: male in elongated spikes, orange-colored; female short-stalked, whorled, 2 whorls often being produced on the shoot of the year. Fruit ovoid, oblique at base, sessile, in clusters of 3—5 or sometimes of 7, 2′—3½′ but usually about 3′ long, becoming light chestnut-brown and lustrous, with scales much thickened on the outside of the cone, those toward its base produced into stout incurved knobs sometimes armed with stout flattened spur-like often incurved spines, and on the inside of the cone slightly flattened and armed with stout or slender straight prickles; often remaining closed for several years and usually persistent on the stem and branches during the entire life of the tree without becoming imbedded in the wood; seeds nearly triangular, ¼′ long, with a thin nearly black roughened shell, their wings broadest above the middle, oblique at apex, nearly 1′ long, ⅛′ wide.

A tree, usually 40°—50° but occasionally 90° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, thick spreading branches covered with dark scaly bark, in youth forming a regular pyramid, and at maturity a handsome compact round-topped head of dense tufted foliage, and stout branchlets dark orange-green at first, turning orange-brown more or less tinged with purple. Bark of the lower part of the trunk often 4′—6′ thick and deeply divided into long narrow rounded ridges roughened by closely appressed dark purplish brown scales. Wood light, very strong, hard, rather coarse-grained, light brown, with thick nearly white sapwood; occasionally manufactured into lumber.

Distribution. California coast region from Mendocino County southward, usually in widely separated localities to Point Reyes Peninsula, north of the Bay of San Francisco, and from Monterey to Coon Creek, San Luis Obispo County; in Lower California on Cedros Island and on the west coast between Ensenada and San Quentin; of its largest size and the common Pine-tree on the coast of Mendocino County.

27. Pinus pungens Lamb. Table Mountain Pine. Hickory Pine.

Leaves in crowded clusters, rigid, usually twisted, dark blue-green, 1¼′—2½′ long, deciduous during their second and third years. Flowers: male in elongated loose spikes, yellow; female clustered, long-stalked. Fruit ovoid-conic, oblique at base by the greater development of the scales on the outer than on the inner side, sessile, reflexed, in clusters usually of 3 or 4, or rarely of 7 or 8, 2′—3½′ long, becoming light brown and lustrous, with thin tough scales armed with stout hooked curved spines produced from much thickened mammillate knobs, opening as soon as ripe and gradually shedding their seeds, or often remaining closed for two or three years longer, and frequently persistent on the branches for eighteen or twenty years; seeds almost triangular, full and rounded on the sides, nearly ¼′ long, with a thin conspicuously roughened light brown shell, their wings widest below the middle, gradually narrowed to the ends, 1′ long, ¼′ wide.

A tree, when crowded in the forest occasionally 60° high, with a trunk 2°—3° in diameter, and a few short branches near the summit forming a narrow round-topped head; in open ground usually 20°—30° tall, and often fertile when only a few feet high, with a short thick trunk frequently clothed to the ground, and long horizontal branches, the lower pendulous toward the extremities, the upper sweeping in graceful upward curves and forming a flat-topped often irregular head, and stout branchlets, light orange color when they first appear, soon growing darker and ultimately dark brown. Bark on the lower part of the trunk ¾′—1′ thick and broken into irregularly shaped plates separating on the surface into thin loose dark brown scales tinged with red, higher on the stem, and on the branches dark brown and broken into thin loose scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, very coarse-grained, pale brown, with thick nearly white sapwood; somewhat used for fuel, and in Pennsylvania manufactured into charcoal.

Distribution. Dry gravelly slopes and ridges of the Appalachian Mountains from southern Pennsylvania to North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia, sometimes ascending to elevations of 3000°, with isolated outlying stations in eastern Pennsylvania, western New Jersey, Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia; often forming toward the southern limits of its range pure forests of considerable extent.

28. Pinus Torreyana Carr. Torrey Pine.

Leaves forming great tufts at the ends of the branches, stout, dark green, conspicuously marked on the 3 faces by numerous rows of stomata, 8′—13′ long. Flowers from January to March; male yellow, in short dense heads; female subterminal on long stout peduncles. Fruit broad-ovoid, spreading or reflexed on long stalks, 4′—6′ in length, becoming deep chestnut-brown, with thick scales armed with minute spines; mostly deciduous in their fourth year and in falling leaving a few of the barren scales on the stalk attached to the branch; seeds oval, more or less angled, ¾′—1′ long, dull brown and mottled on the lower side, light yellow-brown on the upper side, with a thick hard shell, nearly surrounded by their dark brown wings often nearly ½′ long.

A tree, usually 30°—40° high, with a short trunk about 1° in diameter, or occasionally 50°—60° tall, with a long straight slightly tapering stem 2½° in diameter, stout spreading and often ascending branches, and very stout branchlets bright green in their first season, becoming light purple and covered with a metallic bloom the following year, ultimately nearly black. Bark ¾′—1′ thick, deeply and irregularly divided into broad flat ridges covered by large thin closely appressed light red-brown scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, light yellow, with thick yellow or nearly white sapwood; occasionally used for fuel. The large edible seeds are gathered in large quantities and are eaten raw or roasted.

Distribution. Only in a narrow belt a few miles long on the coast near the mouth of the Soledad River just north of San Diego and on the island of Santa Rosa, California; the least widely distributed Pine-tree of the United States.

Now planted in the parks of San Diego, California, and in New Zealand, growing rapidly in cultivation, and promising to attain a much larger size than on its native cliffs.

2. LARIX Adans. Larch.

Tall pyramidal trees, with thick sometimes furrowed scaly bark, heavy heartwood, thin pale sapwood, slender remote horizontal often pendulous branches, elongated leading branchlets, short thick spur-like lateral branchlets, and small subglobose buds, their inner scales accrescent and marking the lateral branchlets with prominent ring-like scars. Leaves awl-shaped, triangular and rounded above, or rarely 4-angled, spirally disposed and remote on leading shoots, on lateral branchlets in crowded fascicles, each leaf in the axil of a deciduous bud-scale, deciduous. Flowers solitary, terminal, the staminate globose, oval or oblong, sessile or stalked, on leafless branches, yellow, composed of numerous spirally arranged anthers with connectives produced above them into short points, the pistillate appearing with the leaves, short-oblong to oblong, composed of few or many green nearly orbicular stalked scales in the axes of much longer mucronate usually scarlet bracts. Fruit a woody ovoid-oblong conic or subglobose short-stalked cone composed of slightly thickened suborbicular or oblong-obovate concave scales, shorter or longer than their bracts, gradually decreasing from the centre to the ends of the cone, the small scales usually sterile. Seeds nearly triangular, rounded on the sides, shorter than their wings; the outer seed-coat crustaceous, light brown, the inner membranaceous, pale chestnut-brown and lustrous; cotyledons usually 6, much shorter than the inferior radicle.

Larix is widely distributed over the northern and mountainous region of the northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to the mountains of West Virginia and Oregon in the New World, and to central Europe, the Himalayas, Siberia, Korea, western China, and Japan in the Old World. Ten species are recognized. Of the exotic species the European _Larix decidua_, Mill., has been much planted for timber and ornament in the northeastern states, where the Japanese _Larix Kœmpferi_, Sarg., also flourishes.

_Larix_ is the classical name of the Larch-tree.

CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.

Cones small, subglobose; their scales few, longer than the bracts, leaves triangular. 1. L. laricina (A, B, F). Cones elongated; their scales numerous, shorter than the bracts. Young branchlets pubescent, soon becoming glabrous; leaves triangular. 2. L. occidentalis (B, G). Young branchlets tomentose; leaves 4-angled. 3. L. Lyallii (B, F).

1. Larix laricina K. Koch. Tamarack. Larch.

_Larix americana_ Michx.

Leaves linear, triangular, rounded above, prominently keeled on the lower surface, ¾′—1¼′ long, bright green, conspicuously stomatiferous when they first appear; turning yellow and falling in September or October. Flowers: male subglobose and sessile; female oblong, with light-colored bracts produced into elongated green tips, and nearly orbicular rose-red scales. Fruit on stout incurved stems, subglobose, rather obtuse, ½′—¾′ long, composed of about 20 scales slightly erose on their nearly entire margins, rather longer than broad and twice as long as their bracts, bright chestnut-brown at maturity; usually falling during their second year; seeds ⅛′ long, about one third as long as their light chestnut-brown wings broadest near the middle and obliquely rounded at apex.

A tree, 50°—60° high, with a trunk 18′—20′ in diameter, small horizontal branches forming during the early life of the tree a narrow regular pyramidal head always characteristic of this tree when crowded in the forest, or with abundant space sweeping out in graceful curves, often becoming contorted and pendulous and forming a broad open frequently picturesque head, and slender leading branchlets often covered at first with a glaucous bloom, becoming light orange-brown during their first winter and conspicuous from the small globose dark red lustrous buds. Bark ½′—¾′ thick, separating into thin closely appressed rather bright reddish brown scales. Wood heavy, hard, very strong, rather coarse-grained, very durable, light brown; largely used for the upper knees of small vessels, fence-posts, telegraph-poles, and railway-ties.

Distribution. At the north often on well-drained uplands, southward in cold deep swamps which it often clothes with forests of closely crowded trees, from Labrador to the Arctic Circle, ranging west of the Rocky Mountains to latitude 65° 35′ north, and southward through Canada and the northern states to northern and eastern Pennsylvania, Garrett County, Maryland (Oakland to Thayerville), and Preston County, West Virginia (Cranesville Swamp), northern Indiana and Illinois, and northeastern Minnesota; along the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains to about latitude 53° and between the Yukon River and Cook Inlet, Alaska (_Larix alaskensis_ Wight.); very abundant in the interior of Labrador, where it is the largest tree; common along the margins of the barren lands stretching beyond the sub-Arctic forest to the shores of the Arctic Sea; attaining its largest size north of Lake Winnipeg on low benches which it occasionally covers with open forests; on the eastern slopes of the northern Rocky Mountains usually at elevation from 600°—1700° above the sea; rare and local toward the southern limits of its range.

Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree in the northeastern states, growing rapidly and attaining in cultivation a large size and picturesque habit.

2. Larix occidentalis Nutt. Tamarack.

Leaves triangular, rounded on the back, conspicuously keeled below, rigid, sharp-pointed, 1′—1¾′ long, about 1/32′ wide, light pale green, turning pale yellow early in the autumn. Flowers: male short-oblong; female oblong, nearly sessile, with orbicular scales and bracts produced into elongated tips. Fruit oblong, short-stalked, 1′—1½′ long, with numerous thin stiff scales nearly entire and sometimes a little reflexed on their margins, much shorter than their bracts, more or less thickly coated on the lower surface below the middle with hoary tomentum, and standing after the escape of the seeds at right angles to the axis of the cone, or often becoming reflexed; seeds nearly ¼′ long, with a pale brown shell, one half to two thirds as long as the thin fragile pale wings broadest near the middle and obliquely rounded at apex.

A tree, sometimes 180° high, with a tall tapering naked trunk 6°—8° in diameter, or on dry soil and exposed mountain slopes usually not more than 100° tall, with a short narrow pyramidal head of small branches clothed with scanty foliage, or occasionally with a larger crown of elongated drooping branches, stout branchlets covered when they first appear with soft pale pubescence, usually soon glabrous, bright orange-brown in their first year, ultimately becoming dark gray-brown, and dark chestnut-brown winter-buds about ⅛′ in diameter. Bark of young stems thin, dark-colored and scaly, becoming near the base of old trunks 5′ or 6′ thick and broken into irregularly shaped oblong plates often 2° long and covered with thin closely appressed light cinnamon-red scales. Wood very heavy, exceedingly hard and strong, close-grained, very durable in contact with the soil, bright light red, with thin nearly white sapwood; largely used for railway-ties and fence-posts, and manufactured into lumber used in cabinet-making and the interior finish of buildings.

Distribution. Moist bottom-lands and on high benches and dry mountain sides generally at elevations between 2000° and 7000° above sea-level, usually singly or in small groves, through the basin of the upper Columbia River from southern British Columbia to the western slopes of the continental divide of northern Montana, and to the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains of Washington and northern Oregon; most abundant and of its largest size on the bottom-lands of streams flowing into Flat Head Lake in northern Montana, and in northern Idaho.