The white pine has the softest, most hair-like leaves in the whole pine
family. Five needles are in each bundle, and each is delicate and
flexible. When the wind blows through the top of one of these
five-needled trees, the end shoots nod like plumes. The tree sends up a
straight shaft sometimes to the height of nearly two hundred feet, and
whorls of branches, five in a place, form regular platforms extending
horizontally from the trunk. Each of these sets of branches counts a year
of the tree’s life; for the end bud lengthens the trunk, and at the same
time, five buds that surround it grow out into horizontal branches. It is
easy to count the age of a young white pine, by beginning at the tip, and
counting downward. We could do it with large trees, except that the lower
branches die, and at length are lost. The bark heals over the scars left
where they fell, so the count is lost when we reach the point where the
branches stop. The white pine is slow to shed its dead branches.
In the woods of the Eastern half of the United States any five-leaved
pine that we meet is a white pine. Before we are near enough to count the
needles in a bundle, we may count five branches at a whorl around the
trunk, and this determines the name. Beautifully regular pyramids, the
little trees are. In old age these pines lose symmetry by the loss of
limbs, and become very rugged and picturesque. A white pine tree,
crippled by two or three centuries of struggle with winds and lightnings,
is a noble figure. The plume-like branches soften its rugged outlines,
and the sombre blue-green of the older leaves is brightened by the
fresher colour of the new ones. The upper half of the tree is hung with
slim cones whose smooth, thin scales spread wide in the autumn of their
second year to let the winged seeds go.
In spring the clustering catkins of staminate flowers look like yellow
cones on the ends of the pale yellow-green shoots. The wind shakes an
abundant supply of golden dust out of these pollen flowers, then lets the
fading catkins fall. The pistillate flowers are pinkish-purple and almost
hidden, just back of the tips of the upper twigs. They are cone-shaped,
and they part their scales and stand erect to catch the pollen as it
drifts through the tree tops. The flowers on each scale require a grain
of pollen each, in order to set seed. When its flowers are fertilised the
cone closes its scales tight, but they stand erect all summer. In the
autumn they are green and fleshy, and they turn downward. In winter we
shall see among the swaying branches of these pines, the green,
half-grown fruits, and further back, on wood a year older, the brown,
full-grown cones with their scales spread. These cones often curve
slightly. The largest of them may be ten inches long, but the average
cone is little over half that length.
The lumbermen have stripped the white pine from the Eastern forests until
there is very little left. Many states are planting this valuable timber
tree, to restore the forests that wasteful lumbering, and forest fires
have destroyed. Thousands of young trees grown in nursery rows are
transplanted to beautify home grounds and parks. We shall find no
difficulty in discovering white pine trees, even though no forest near us
has a specimen left. It is one of the commonest pines to be planted in
cities and villages. It is the only five-leaved pine that will grow
successfully on this side of the Rocky Mountains.