PINUS BANKSIANA Lambert. Gray or Jack Pine. (× 1/2.)
PINUS VIRGINIANA Miller. Jersey or Scrub Pine. (×1/2.)
3. Pinus virginiàna Miller. Jersey Pine. Scrub Pine. [Plate 4.] Bark dark-brown with rather shallow fissures, the ridges broken, somewhat scaly; shoots green, light brown or purplish with a bloom, becoming a gray-brown; leaves in bundles of two, rarely three, twisted, usually about 4-5 cm. long, deciduous during the third or fourth year; cones sessile or nearly so, narrowly conic when closed, 4-7 cm. long, opening in the autumn of the second season; scales armed with a curved spine 2-4 mm. long; wood light, soft, weak, brittle and slightly resinous.
Distribution.—Long Island to South Carolina, Alabama and north to Indiana and Licking County, Ohio. The distribution in Indiana is quite limited, and has never been understood by authors who variously give it as found throughout the southern part of Indiana. It is confined to the knob area of Floyd, Clark and Scott Counties, and the southeastern part of Washington County. In the original forest it is confined to the tops of the knobs where it is associated with Quercus Prinus (Gray's Man. 7th Edition). It propagates easily from self-sown seed, hence is soon found on the lower slopes of cut-over lands, and soon occupies fallow fields. It is now found in the open woods several miles east of the knobs in the preceding counties, but pioneers of this section say it was not a constituent of the original forests but has come in since the original forests were heavily cut over. It is believed that it crowned the knobs over our area from 5-10 miles wide extending through the counties named and extending northward about 25 miles. This species is found in the open woods on a few hills on the Millport Ridge in the northern part of Washington County, and it appears as if native, but investigation showed that it had spread from a tree on the site of a pioneer's cabin. It is also found as a frequent escape on the wooded bluff of Raccoon Creek in the southern part of Owen County, and appears as native here. It is associated on the bluff and slope with hemlock. Chas. Green, a man of sixty years, who owns the place says the trees were seeded by a tree planted in his father's yard nearby. His father also planted a white pine in his yard, and it is to be noted while the Jersey Pine has freely escaped the white pine has not, although the habitat seems favorable.
Remarks.—In its native habitat on the exposed summits of the "knobs" it is usually a small tree about 3 dm. in diameter and 10 m. high. When it finds lodgement on the lower slopes and coves it may attain a diameter of 7 dm. and a height of 25 m. This tree is really entitled to be called "old field pine" on account of its ability to establish itself on them.