trasted with that of the foregoing sort, which is white. The leaves of this species are long and flexible, arranged in pairs upon the branches, and have a fine dark green colour. The cones are very small, scarcely measuring an inch and a half in length, and are clothed on the exterior with short spines. The growth is quite slow.

The Yellow Pine is rarely found above Albany to the northward, but it extends as far south as the Floridas. It grows in the greatest abundance in New-Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and sometimes measures five or six feet in eircumference. In plantations, it has the valuable property to recommend it, of growing on the very poorest lands.

The Pitch Pine, (P. rigida,) is a very distinct sort, common in the whole of the United States east of the Alleghanies. It is very stiff and formal in its growth when young, but as it approaches maturity, it becomes one of the most picturesque trees of the genus. The branches, which shoot out horizontally, bend downwards at the extremities, and the top of the tree when old, takes a flattened shape. The whole air and expression of the tree is wild and romantic, and is harmonious with portions of scenery when these characters predominate. The leaves are collected in threes, and the colour of the foliage is a dark green. The cones are pyramidal, from one to three inches long, and armed with short spines.

The bark of this kind of Pine is remarkably rough, black, and furrowed even upon young trees: and the wood is filled with resinous sap, from which pitch and tar are copiously supplied. The trees grow in various parts of the country, both on the most meagre soils and in moist swamps, with almost equal facility. In the latter situations they are, however, comparatively destitute of resin, but the stems often rise to 80 feet in elevation.

The foregoing are the finest and most important species of the north. The Red Pine, (Pinus rubra,) and the Gray Pine, are species of small or secondary size, chiefly indigenous to British America. The Jersey Pine, (P. inops,) is a dwarfish species, often called the Scrub Pine, which seldom grows more than 25 feet high.

There are some splendid species, that are confined to the southern states, where they grow in great luxuriance. Among the most interesting of these, is the Long-leaved Pine, (P. australis,) a tree of 70 feet elevation, with superb wandlike foliage, borne in threes, often nearly a foot in length. The cones are also seven or eight inches long, containing a kernel or seed of agreeable flavour. As this tree grows as far north as Norfolk in Virginia, we are strongly inclined to believe that it might be naturalized in the climate of the middle states, and think it would become one of the most valuable additions to our catalogue of evergreen trees. The Loblolly Pine, (P. Tœda,) of Virginia, has also fine foliage, six inches or more in length, and grows to 80 feet in height. Besides these already named, the southern states produce the Pond Pine, (P. serotina,) which resembles considerably the Pitch Pine, with, however, longer leaves, and the Table Mountain Pine, (P. Pungens,) which grows 40 or 50 feet high, and is found exclusively upon that part of the Alleghany range.

We must not forget in this enumeration of the Pines of North America, the magnificent species of California and the north-west coast. The most splendid of these was discovered in Northern California, and named the Pinus Lambertiana, in honour of that distinguished botanist, A. B. Lambert, Esq., of London, the author of a superb work on this genus of trees. It is undoubtedly one of the finest

evergreens in the world, averaging from 100 to 200 feet in height. Its discoverer, Mr. Douglass, the indefatigable collector of the Horticultural Society of London, measured one of these trees that had blown down, which was two hundred and fifteen feet in length, and fifty-seven feet nine inches in circumference, at three feet from the root, while at one hundred and thirty-four feet from the root, it was seventeen feet five inches in girth. This, it is stated, is by no means the maximum height of the species. The cones of the Lambert Pine measure sixteen inches in length; and the seeds are eaten by the natives of those regions, either roasted or made into cakes, after being pounded. The other species found by Mr. Douglass, grow naturally in the mountain valleys of the western coast, and several of them, as the Pinus grandis, and nobilis, are almost as lofty as the foregoing sort; while Pinus monticola and P. Sabiniana, are highly beautiful in their forms, and elegant in foliage. The seeds of nearly all these sorts were first sent to the garden of the London Horticultural Society, where many of the young trees are now growing; and we hope that they will soon be introduced into our plantations, which they are so admirably calculated, by their elegant foliage and stupendous magnitude, to adorn.

The European Pines next deserve our attention. The most common species in the north of Europe is the Scotch Pine, (P. sylvestris,) a dark, tall evergreen tree, with bluish foliage, of 80 feet in height, which furnishes most of the deal timber of Europe. It is one of the most rapid of all the Pines in its growth, even on poor soils, and is, therefore, valuable in new places. The Stone Pine, (P. pinea,) is a native of the South of Europe, where it is decidedly the most picturesque evergreen tree of that continent. It belongs peculiarly to Italy, and its "vast canopy, supported on a

naked column of great height, forms one of the chief and peculiar beauties in Italian scenery, and in the living landscapes of Claude." We regret that it is too tender to bear our winters, but its place may in a great measure be supplied by the Pinaster or Cluster Pine, (P. pinaster,) which is quite hardy, and succeeds well in the United States. This has much of the same picturesque expression; depressed or rounded head, and tall columnar stem, which mark the Stone Pine; while its thickly massed foliage, clustering cones, and rough bark, render it distinct and strikingly interesting.

The Corsican Pine, (P. larico,) is a handsome, regular shaped, pyramidal tree, with the branches disposed in tiers like those of the White Pine. It grows to a large size, and is valued for its extremely dark green foliage, thickly spread upon the branches. It is also one of the most rapid growers among the foreign sorts, and has been found to grow remarkably well upon the barren chalk downs of England. Pinus cembra is a very slow growing, though valuable kind, indigenous to Switzerland, and hardy here.

These are the principal European species that deserve notice here, for their ornamental qualities. Some splendid additions have been made to this genus, by the discovery of new species on the Himmalya mountains of Asia; and from the great elevation at which they are found growing wild, we have reason to hope that they will become naturalized in our climate.

We must not leave this extensive of family trees, without adverting to their numerous and important uses. In the United States, full four-fifths of all the houses built, are constructed of the White and Yellow Pine, chiefly of the former. Soft, easily worked, light and fine in texture, it is almost universally employed in carpentry, and for all the purposes

of civil architecture; while the tall stately trunks, furnish masts and spars, not only for our own vessels, but many of those of England. A great commerce is therefore carried on in the timber of this tree, and vast quantities of the boards, etc. are annually exported to Europe. The Yellow and Pitch Pine, furnish much of the enormous supplies of fuel consumed by the great number of steamboats employed in navigating our numerous inland rivers. The Long-leaved Pine is the great timber tree of the southern states; and when we take into account all its various products, we must admit it to be the most valuable tree of the whole family. The consumption of the wood of this tree in building, in the southern states, is immense; and its sap furnishes nearly all the turpentine, tar, pitch, and rosin, used in this country, or exported to Europe. The turpentine flows from large incisions made in the trunk, (into boxes fastened to the side of the trees for that purpose,) during the whole of the spring and summer. Spirit of turpentine is obtained from this by distillation. Tar is procured by burning the dead wood in kilns, when it flows out in a current from a conduit made in the bottom. Pitch is prepared by boiling tar until it is about one half diminished in bulk; and rosin is the residuum of the distillation, when spirit of turpentine is made. The Carolinas produce all these in the greatest abundance, and so long ago as in 1807, the exportation of them to England alone, amounted to nearly $800,000 in that single year.

THE FIR TREES.

Abies.

Nat. Ord. Coniferæ.

Lin. Syst. Monaecia, Monadelphia.

The Fir trees differ from the Pines, to which they are nearly related, in having much shorter leaves, which are