Pitch pines are rich in resin; the knots especially accummu late it, and " pine knots" and " candlewood " are useful and familiar household words in the regions where this pine grows. Kindling wood and torches for midnight coon hunts are never lacking. The " pitchie kinde of substance" which makes hand ling of these sticks unpleasant business for tidy folks, gums the saws and makes trouble in the mills. Sills and beams of houses were formerly got of pitch-pine logs, but now other kinds are preferred, and these trees go into charcoal and fuel. The turpen tine gatherer, too, has left these trees to seek the richer pineries of the South and West. There is small excuse for the pitch pine to stay on, were it not for the one thing it does better than any other—it makes glad the wilderness and the solitary place.
The Knob-Cone Pine (P. attenuata, Lemm.) is another tree of striking habit. Its cones are woody, armed with stout beaks, and from 3 to 5 inches long. There is nothing peculiar in these cones, nor in the pale yellow-green foliage in its 3-leaved clusters. The tree is slim and tall, and grows on the hot, dry fire-swept foothills of California mountains. A stranger notes how dense and uniform in size is the growth of these trees, and how thickly studded are the limbs with clusters of cones. Close examination shows them sealed up tight—not a scale sprung on the oldest cone, though the branch that bears it may have actu ally swallowed the cone by the increase of its diameter.
A fire sweeps over the slope, and every tree gives up its cones. The scales are unsealed at last and the seeds, whose vitality has been preserved, apparently, in anticipation of this day, germinate at once, and soon a new forest takes the place of the old one. With such an abundance of seed, is it wonderful that the trees stand close and even like wheat in a field ? Cuban Pine, Swamp Pine (P. Caribcea, Morelet.)—Tree, too to 12o feet, with tapering trunk and dense, round crown, above large horizontal limbs. Bark in broad, scaly, irregular plates, reddish brown, showing orange in the shallow fissures. Wood heavy, very hard, strong, tough, durable, coarse, dark orange, with thick, nearly white sap wood. Buds, elongated, scaly, i to i inches long, light brown; lateral buds smaller. Leaves in clusters of twos and threes; stout, dark green, 8 to 12 inches long, persistent 2 years; sheaths thin, brown. Flowers in January, before new leaves, subterminal; staminate clustered, incurving, purplish, i to i inches long; pistillate oval, 2 to 3 in cluster, pinkish, inch long. Fruits elongated, 3 to 7 inches long, narrowing to blunt apex, pendant, with beaked, thickened scales and winged seeds. Preferred habitat, damp, sandy soil of swamp borders, with even moisture supply. Dis
tribution, coast region, South Carolina to Florida and Louisiana. Also Bahamas, Cuba and other islands, and Central America.
No more beautiful pine grows in the Southern States than this stately tree that skirts the swampy coast land, forming great forests and casting a goodly shadow under its thick, dark, lustrous foliage mass. Beside it the other pines seem to have very ragged and loose crowns. Here in the humid air that flows from sea or gulf, the Cuban pine promises to replenish our depleted forest areas even as the shortleaf does back from the coast. The same vigour characterises thousands which endure the shade and soon spring to a height that resists the fires that menace them.
The wood of the Cuban pine is not distinguished in the markets from longleaf pine, and it serves the same uses. Spars of the largest dimensions, straight and free from blemish, come out of these coast pineries. The wide, porous sap wood and the coarse grain once counted against this tree, but they are now con- • sidered distinct advantages, for this kind of wood more readily absorbs creosote and other preservatives by infiltration, and kiln drying converts the sap wood into good lumber.
Turpentine of higher quality than that of longleaf pine is derived from these trees, which also abound in other resinous matters. Young trees are ready for tapping at forty years; and in this time a new forest has replaced the one stripped by lum bermen. A large part of the turpentine exported by Georgia and South Carolina to-day is from land thus spontaneously reforested. The future of our naval stores depends to a large extent on the perpetuity of the forests of Cuban pine.
Western Yellow Pine (P. ponderosa, Laws.)—Spire-like tree with stout, short horizontal branches; too to 23o feet high, with trunk 5 to 8 feet thick. Bark thick, cinnamon-red, times black, becoming furrowed and broken into large plates. Wood light red, strong, hard, very heavy, not durable, fine grained. Buds ovate, brown, scaly, terminal the largest. Leaves in threes, or in twos and threes, stout, rigid, shiny, 3 to 15 inches long, yellow-green, tufted on ends of naked branches; last till third season; sheath persistent. Flowers: staminate yellow, in crowded spikes; pistillate dark red, oval, subterminal, clustered or paired. Fruits green or purple when full grown; scales conspicuously beaked, with recurved point. Preferred habitat, deep, well-drained soil on mountain slopes or elevated plains. Distribution, British Columbia and Black Hills south through Rocky Mountains and coast ranges to Texas and Mexico. Uses: Principal lumber tree of Northwestern and Southwestern states. Used in building, for railroad ties, fencing and fuel.