149
Two Letters on Pinus Banksiana.
DR. N. L. BRITTON:
DEAR SIR .- I was observing a note of yours made in the
BULLETIN some years ago, in regard to the size of Pinus Banksiana. The largest trunk I ever saw grew in the southeastern
part of Grand Traverse County, Michigan. I have a cut three
feet long in our museum; the top end, including the bark, is just
one foot and a half in diameter, measured in either of two directions.
It is perfectly sound. Several others nearly as large have been
seen in various parts of the state.

At the mouth of the Au Sable River entering Lake Huron, in
poor, sandy land, these trees grow very slowly. Many of them
have a clean trunk for three to eight feet and a spreading top
considerably like that of a well-shaped apple tree. I am told that
this shape is common in Northern Minnesota. Large areas of
sandy land in Crawford and Osceola counties are mainly covered
with Jack Pines. In many places the trees are "stocky," twenty
to forty feet high, with limbs near the ground and a wide-spreading, conical top. The people in the vicinity speak of them as
"Black Jack Pines" or "Buckwheat Pines." They are making
a comparatively rapid growth. In places where the soil is apparently a little better these trees are thicker and taller, with
straight, slender, nearly cylindrical trunks forty to sixty or
seventy feet high, and a diameter from eight inches to a foot or
more. Such trees are called "Yellow Jack Pines," and as they
have small bushy tops, make only a slow growth.

Many people believe that the pitch and leaves of Pinus
Banksiana are poison to the ground, so that little else will grow
near them. It is needless to say, there is no foundation for this
notion.

Occasionally the trunks of good " Yellow " Jack, are used for
cutting into lumber of an inferior quality, which is graded as
"Norway" pine. The timber is also, to some extent, used for
fence posts and stove wood.

I have seen this pine in the sand south of Lake Michigan in northwestern Indiana.
AGRIC. COLLEGE, MICH., June 11, 1890.  W. J. BEAL.

150
HOBOKEN, N. J., April 27, 1890.

PROF. J. S. NEWBERRY:
DEAR DOCTOR .- Miss E. Torrey brought me over yesterday
some back numbers of the BULLETIN to look at. In the one for
November, 1889, I find two papers (by E. L. Rand and J. H.
Redfield) on the most southern station yet found for Pinus
Banksiana. Turning to BULLETIN, August, 1882, I read: " Appalachia for June contains a few notes on the flora of the White
Mountain region, and the statement is made that Pinus Banksiana has been detected on Welch Mountain (lat. 43° 55' N. long.
71° 35' W.)"

In Appalachia, June, 1882, J. H. Huntington writes (page 65):
"There was also found on Welch Mountain the gray scrubpine,
Pinus Banksiana. This is thought to be farther south than any
point' where it has been previously seen."

The facts in the case are as follows: August 9, 188r, my
sister, Miss Edith W. Cook, being on Welch Mountain, Thornton,
Grafton Co., N. H., found sundry stunted specimens of Pinus
Banksiana on the mountain top (2,500 or 2,600 ft. high). She
brought to me some branches and some of the lop-sided cones. I
sent specimens of the same to Prof. Huntington, who was
Councillor of Natural History to the Appalachian Club for that
year. He issued the notice given in the " Appalachia" of the
following June (1882), whence it was copied into the BULLETIN
for August, 1882.

I know that botanists receive with difficulty the testimony of
any eyes but their own; hence I sent specimen and cone to
Prof. Huntington, who thus made the statement on his own positive knowledge. My sister and myself have never seen the tree
elsewhere.

I enclose a little branch-end, and only wish I had one of the
characteristic cones to send. But I have only one left, and must
keep that as a proof for the skeptical.
Very truly yours,
LUCIA G. PYCHOWSKA