Figs. 275, 276, Cones. Fig. 277, Magnified leaf-section. Fig. 278, Magnified dermal tissues in the angle of the leaf.
52. PINUS VIRGINIANA
- 1768 P. virginiana Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. 8.
- 1789 P. inops Aiton, Hort. Kew. iii. 367.
Spring-shoots multinodal, pruinose; branchlets pliant and tough. Bark-formation slow, the cortex not rifted for some years. Leaves binate, from 4 to 8 cm. long; resin-ducts medial, or with an occasional internal duct; hypoderm biform. Conelets with long tapering sharp scales. Cones from 4 to 6 cm. long, ovate or oblong-ovate, symmetrical, persistent, dehiscent at maturity; apophyses lustrous nut-brown, somewhat elevated along a transverse keel, the umbo salient, forming a long slender prickle with a broad base.
Western Long Island to central Georgia and north Alabama, and from eastern Tennessee to southern Indiana and southeastern Ohio. It is a low bushy tree in the north, but in the south and west it attains small timber-size and is locally exploited. It is hardy beyond the limits of its natural range, growing readily in the vicinity of Boston. Its short binate leaves, the persistent long prickles of its cone, and its tough branches, combine to distinguish this Pine from its associates. The obvious relationship of P. virginiana and P. clausa places the former in this, rather than in the preceding group.