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ARBORETUM AND FIIUTICETUM.

PART III.

though not uniformly, over a vast extentof country; but that it is incapable ofsupporting either intense heat or intensecold. The elder Michaux, after travers-ing 300 miles, on his return from Hud-son’s Bay, without perceiving a vestigeof it, first observed it about 40 leaguesfrom the mouth of the Mistassin, whichdischarges itself into the Lake St. John,in Canada , in n. lat. 48° 50'. Two de-grees farther south, he found it common.

It is, however, most abundant betweenN. lat. 43° and N. lat. 47° : farther south,it is found in the valleys and declivitiesof the Alleghanies , but will not grow atany distance from the mountains oneither side, on account of the warmth ofthe climate. In New Hampshire , inthe state of Vermont , and near thecommencement of the river St. Lawrence ,it attains its largest dimensions. “ Inthese countries,” says the youngerMichaux, “ I have seen it in very dif-ferent situations; and it seems to accommodate itself to all varieties of soil,except such as consist wholly of sand, and such as are almost constantlysubmerged; but I have seen the largest specimens in the bottom of soft,friable, and fertile valleys, on the banks of rivers composed of deep, cool,black sand ; and in swamps filled with the white cedar (Cupressus fhyoides),and covered with a thick and constantly humid carpet of .Sphagnum. NearNorridgewock, on the river Kennebeck, in one of these swamps which isaccessible only in the middle of summer, I measured two trunks felled forcanoes, of which one was 154 ft. long, and 54 in. in diameter, and the other142 ft. long, and 44 in. in diameter, at 3 ft. from the ground. Mention ismade, in Belknap’s History of New Hampshire, of a white pine felled near theriver Merrimac, 7 ft. 8 in. in diameter; and near Hollowell, I saw a stumpexceeding 6 ft. in diameter. These enormous trees had probably reached thegreatest height attained by the species, which is about 180 ft. I have beenassured, by persons worthy of belief, that, in a few instances, they had felledindividual trees of nearly this stature.” (Michx. North Amer. Syl., iii. p. 161.)Michaux adds that he has “always observed the influence of soil to be greateron resinous than on broad-leaved trees.” The qualities of the white pine, inparticular, are strikingly affected by it. In loose, deep, humid soils, it unitesin the highest degree all the valuable properties by which it is characterised,especially lightness and fineness of texture, so that it may be smoothly cut inevery direction; and hence, perhaps, is derived the name of pumpkin pine.On dry elevated lands, its wood is firmer and more resinous, with a coarsergrain and more distant concentric circles, and it is then called sapling pine.In the district of Maine, and the province of Nova Scotia , the white pine hasbeen observed to be the first to take possession of barren deserted lands, andthe most hardy in resisting the impetuous gales from the ocean.

History. Pinus Ntrobus received its name from Linnaeus , and was firstcultivated in England by the Duchess of Beaufort, at Badmington, in 1705.Great quantities were soon afterwards planted at Longleat, in Wiltshire , theseat of Lord W eymouth, where the trees prospered amazingly, and whencethe species received the name of the Weymouth pine. Several were alsoplanted at Mersham Hatch, in Kent; and a number at Whitton, by the Dukeof Argyll. These plants began to bear cones with perfect seeds about 1720;and the species has been since extensively raised by nurserymen, from theseeds produced at these places; and the plants have been thus distributed

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