The Pitch Pine, Pipits riqid(t. is as picturesque a figure when old as the pine family can show. It is an eastern species, which is commonly seen on sandy or rocky soil. It covers a large part of the Pine Barrens New Jersey and Long Island. It has the habit, unusual among conifers, of throwing up stick ers from the stump when the tree is cut down. 'l he struggle of a Pitch Pine's life is strikingly ex pressed by its rugged. undersized trunk, by the appealing reach of its tortuous limbs, and by the scant sickly-looking foliage, and the scraggy dead cones. Every vestige of symmetry is -usually lost early in the life of the tree. The lea ves Ire ill th ecs. stout, yellowish-green, and tufted on the ends of the twigs.
The squat cones, each scale of which is armed with a pugnacious looking point, hang a long time on the tree, and add to its pictur The wood or this tree is rich ill resin, which gives it the names Candle-wood Pine Torch Pine. A fat lightwood knot is just the thing for a coon hunt.
The ,prirees. The genus Picea includes tall, slender, conical trees, whose leaves are short and four-angled, each one being jointed to a pro je•ting base. The leaves are ranged on all sides of the t NV g. The cones of the spruces are thin-sealed, long and pendent, maturing in a single season.
The Black Spruce. l'iecrt Mariano, or piyiw, is a medium-sized tree, which grows in cold swamps and on uplands in the northern tier of states and in British America. Its twigs are stout and hairv, its stubby leaves sombre of line. The dry oval cones hang on the tree several years.
The Red Spruce. Picea mbens, Or rubor, has practically tile same range as the preceding species. It best in rich woods, but is found also 185 in swamps and on mountain slopes. Its leaves are slender and bright green, its hairy twigs slender. and its cones, which are much smaller than those of the black spruce, fall at the end of the season.
The White Truce, Picea Camaiensis, a, northern species, has smooth twigs. pale green leaves, and very thin-scaled cones. When crushed the leaves , 'eaves andgive an unpleasant which has earned for the tree the name "Skunk The Norway Spruce. Pieca excels°, of Europe, is one of the commonest evergreens hi cultivation. It is a beautiful tree. its branches even in old age laden with leaves and pendent cones sweep out in graceful drooping curves, in gradually diminishing lengths from the base to the tip of the central shaft.
The Hemlool,•.. The hem lock or history is a poisonous herb of the carrot family which grows wild in Europe and America. This was the hem lock which Socrates was com pelled to drink. What we mean by •-ITentlock in Amer ica is what people call " !hem lock or Tsva Cana densi•. In its early life this tree is one of our most beauti ful ever! reens. Though it loses its symmetry with added years, the oldest tree will yet show in its branches that graceful droop and feathery lightness which were the charms of its vonth. The leaves of the Hemlock are flat, pale beneath, and attached by short petioles. They are really set all around the twig. but they part in the middle so as to appear two-ranked. 'Chu little cones have papery scales. The Hendrick grows in Canada, and the northern tier of states, and follows the Appalachian mountains to their southern limit. Its wood is used in making the frames of buildings, and its bark yields tannin. A smaller species, Muria CaroliPiag, grows in the Allegheny Mountains from VirHnia to South Carolina.
Thr Firs. The ..enus includes the firs. The Balsam Fir, ii lies - 1llilsameg, is a slender, handsome tree of medium height. Its chief charm is its symmetry of form. The lower branches may droop, those midway up the stem ,spread horizontally. and those near the top ascend ; or all may droop, or all ascend. In any ease, there is a central stein with branches forming a conical head. The leaves of the ilalsam Fir are arranged spirally arcuunl the twig. but are so bent as to appear two-ranked, except on fertile shoots, where the leaves have their normal position, as in the spruce. The leaf is blunt at the tip, and pale beneath, haying a white stripe on either side of the prominently-keeled midrib. The cones stand erect. the scales falling from the axis when the seeds mature. The Lark of this tree is smwth and (rray abounding in little reservoirs filled , • o.
with resin. The pricking and draining of these is a consider able industry with the people living in the northern woods where these trees abound. The clear liquid is the Canada Balsam of commerce. Noth ing is finer than a pillow filled with the needles of the Balsam Fir. as they retain their invigorating aroma for years. Fraser's Balsam Fir. :ibis.~ Forscri, a slightly different species with notched leaves and smaller cones, grows on the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina.