Handbook of the Trees of New England Part 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 Washington 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 Hampshire,--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 Hampshire,--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.

South to Pennsylvania; west through Michigan and Wisconsin to Minnesota.

=Habit.=--The most beautiful of the New England pines, 50-75 feet high, with a diameter of 2-3 feet at the ground; reaching in Maine a height of 100 feet and upwards; trunk straight, scarcely tapering; branches low, stout, horizontal or scarcely declined, forming a broad-based, rounded or conical head of great beauty when young, becoming more or less irregular with age; foliage of a rich dark green, in long dense tufts at the ends of the branches.

=Bark.=--Bark of trunk reddish-brown, in old trees marked by flat ridges which separate on the surface into thin, flat, loose scales; branchlets rough with persistent bases of leaf buds; season's shoots stout, orange-brown, smooth.

=Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Leading branch-buds conical, about 3/4 inch long, tapering to a sharp point, reddish-brown, invested with rather loose scales.

Foliage leaves in twos, from close, elongated, persistent, and conspicuous sheaths, about 6 inches long, dark green, needle-shaped, straight, sharply and stiffly pointed, the outer surface round and the inner flattish, both surfaces marked by lines of minute pale dots.

=Inflorescence.=--Sterile flowers cl.u.s.tered at the base of the season's shoots, oblong, 1/2-3/4 inch long: fertile flowers single or few, at the ends of the season's shoots.

=Fruit.=--Cones near extremity of shoot, at right angles to the stem, maturing the second year, 1-3 inches long, ovate to oblong conical; when opened broadly oval or roundish; scales not hooked or pointed, thickened at the apex.

=Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England; a tall, dark-foliaged evergreen, for which there is no subst.i.tute; grows rapidly in all well-drained soils and in exposed inland or seash.o.r.e situations; seldom disfigured by insects or disease; difficult to transplant and not common in nurseries. Propagated from seed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE V.--Pinus resinosa.]

1. Branch with sterile flowers.

2. Stamen, front view.

3. Stamen, top view.

4. Branch with fertile flowers and one-year-old cones.

5. Bract and ovuliferous scale, outer side.

6. Ovuliferous scale with ovules, inner side.

7. Fruiting branch showing cones of three different seasons.

8. Seeds with cone-scale.

9, 10. Cross-sections of leaves.

= Pinus sylvestris, L.=

SCOTCH PINE (sometimes incorrectly called the Scotch fir).

Indigenous in the northern parts of Scotland and in the Alps, and from Sweden and Norway, where it forms large forests eastward throughout northern Europe and Asia.

At Southington, Conn., many of these trees, probably originating from an introduced pine in the vicinity, were formerly scattered over a rocky pasture and in the adjoining woods, a tract of about two acres in extent. Most of these were cut down in 1898, but the survivors, if left to themselves, will doubtless multiply rapidly, as the conditions have proved very favorable (C. H. Bissell _in lit._, 1899).

Like _P. resinosa_ and _P. Banksiana_, it has its foliage leaves in twos, with neither of which, however, is it likely to be confounded; aside from the habit, which is quite different, it may be distinguished from the former by the shortness of its leaves, which are less than 2 inches long, while those of _P. resinosa_ are 5 or 6; and from the latter by the position of its cones, which point outward and downward at maturity, while those of _P. Banksiana_ follow the direction of the twig.

Picea nigra, Link.

_Picea Mariana, B. S. P. (including Picea brevifolia, Peck)._

BLACK SPRUCE. SWAMP SPRUCE. DOUBLE SPRUCE. WATER SPRUCE.

=Habitat and Range.=--Swamps, sphagnum bogs, sh.o.r.es of rivers and ponds, wet, rocky hillsides; not uncommon, especially northward, on dry uplands and mountain slopes.

Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia, westward beyond the Rocky mountains, extending northward along the tributaries of the Yukon in Alaska.