The red pine is the only American member of a group of Old World pines of which P. sylvestris, the Scotch pine of Europe, is a familiar example. The paired leaves and red bark are signs of kinship. Both are common in cultivation in America, and we shall distinguish the native tree by its longer leaf and the heavy tufting of its twigs; the short leaves of P. sylvestris are thinly and evenly scattered along its branches.
An early Spanish explorer erroneously described this tree as identical with the variety of the Scotch pine that grows in Norway. In this way it came by its second name.
There is a lustiness and symmetry of growth and an expres sion of hardiness and health in the red pine which makes the other pitch pines look ragged and discouraged, and the graceful white pines delicate and unequal to the struggle of life. No handsomer pine than this one is found in the Northeastern States.
The wood of red pine is not what we might expect from such a tree. Rich in resin and fine grained, yet its durability is not to be depended upon. Its height gave masts and spars of great size and free of blemishes. It was once shipped in quan tities to England out of the Canadian woods to be used at the dockyards, and for piles and bridge timbers. Of late years better pine has been substituted. Turpentine and tar are not derived from this tree, despite its name, resinosa, of resin." Less pitchy than P. rigida, soft like P. Strobus, the wood seems intermediate between the two.
The living tree is more valuable than its log; when the lum berman scoffs at the red pine the landscape gardener takes it up. It grows on exposed and sterile coasts, where it rapidly forms effective windbreaks and beautiful groves. It adds a distinct type of beauty to parks and private grounds. Its hardiness and ra pidity of growth commend it to the colder states. Not the least of its good points in the home grounds is that its tWo leaves in their close, deep sheaths furnish children exactly the right ma terial for chains, the making of which is one of the most absorb ing pleasures of childhood.
The Prickle-Cone Pine (P. muricata, D. Don.) is a handsome round-topped evergreen, covered with dense tufts of stiff, yellow-green leaves. It is the dominant pine of the coast of Mendocino County, and follows down in sight of the ocean into Lower California. The oblique cones, whose thickened
scales are armed with sharp, strong beaks, are conspicuous by their persistence for years unopened on the branch. It is rare for them to fall, even after they open and discharge the seed. They usually remain throughout the lifetime of the tree, but strangely are never swallowed up by the growth of the branch that bears them.
The Table-Mountain Pine (P. pungens, Michx.), with cones quite as formidable as those of the preceding species, and closely resembling them in appearance, has the same tardy habit of opening and casting its cones that marks P. muricata. But P. pungens is Eastern, growing on gravelly ridges oc the Appalachian Mountains from Pennsylvania and New Jersey to North Carolina and Tennessee. It has clustered blue-green foliage of sombre hue, and forms a flattened, irregular head, its long, horizontal branches often drooping, but the twigs erect. The wood is used for fuel and for charcoal in some localities. Its dingy colour, barren habitat and scraggly growth earn it the name, "poverty pine." The thin bark, breaking into loose, scaly plates, is probably responsible for the name, "hickory pine." There is no quality of the brittle, coarse-gained wood to account for it.
It is interesting to note in Bulletin io of the Kansas Agricul tural College, which is located at Manhattan in the western part of the state, that P. pungens is one of the hardiest and best pines for that region. The leaves are a decided yellow-green there, a cheerful contrast to the sombre Austrian pines so generally planted. The waywardness of the tree's habit is made a virtue. The terminal shoot bends strongly out of the vertical, producing a grotesque leaning tree, which breaks the monotony of the prim and formal European species with which it is successfully grouped in grounds of considerable extent. The following Western species and varieties were tried and failed on the college grounds: P. contorta, edulis, feyreyi and ponderosa. Besides P. pungens, other Eastern pines that were successfully grown were rigida and echinata. P. Strobus grew often into handsome, shapely speci mens, but died young in the hot winds.