The Pitch Pine differs very widely in its style of growth from the white
pine, and displays fewer of those points that excite our admiration. Its
leaves form larger and more diffusive tufts, and are more bristling and
erect from their superior rigidity. It is remarkable for its rough and
shaggy appearance; hence its Latin name, _rigida_. Indeed there is not a
tree in our forest that equals it in the roughness that is manifest in
every part of it and in every stage of its growth. This is one of the
most common trees in the Southern “pine barrens”; and some of the
ancient pine woods in New England were made up principally of this
species. Such was that extensive wood near Concord, N. H., known by the
poetic appellation of “Dark Plains,” and in the early part of the
century occupying a wide flat region in the valley of the Merrimack
River.
This species does not give out its branches horizontally, nor in regular
whorls. They run up at rather a wide angle with the stem, forming a head
that approaches more nearly to a globular shape than that of any other
of the American conifers. The branches have frequently a tortuous shape;
for when crowded in a dense wood they do not so easily perish as those
of the white pine, but turn in various directions to find light and
space. They are likewise often bent downwards at their terminations,
with a very apparent curvature. There is no conifer that displays so few
straight lines in its composition; and, having no exact symmetry in its
proportions, it may be mutilated to a considerable extent without losing
its normal characters of beauty.
In young trees of this species the whorls of branches may be plainly
distinguished; but as the tree increases in size, so many members of the
whorl become abortive that all regularity of staging in their
arrangement is destroyed. As these branches are numerous, with but
little space between the original whorls, they seem to project from
every part of the trunk. This tree displays very little primness in its
shape, or of a spiry form, save when it is a very young tree. A peculiar
habit of the Pitch Pine is that of producing little branchlets full of
leaves along the stem from the root upwards, completely enveloping some
of the principal boughs. These are rarely anything more than tufts of
leaves standing out as if they had been grafted into the bark of the
tree. It seems to be stimulated to produce this anomalous growth by the
loss of its small branches. It then soon covers itself with this
embroidery, and thus garlanded presents a picturesque appearance more
interesting than that of the perfect trees.
I have seen very beautiful Pitch Pine trees of an abnormal shape, caused
by the loss, when young, of the leading shoot. The lateral branches next
below this terminal bud, being thus converted into leaders, produce two
and sometimes three leading branches, giving the tree some of the
characters of the deciduous species. The white pine is not improved by a
similar accident, as it loses thereby the expression of grandeur that
comes from the length and size of its lateral branches, which are always
diminished by coming from two or more leading shafts. Michaux remarks
that when Pitch-Pines “grow in masses, the cones are dispersed singly
over the branches, and they shed their seeds the first autumn after they
mature. But on solitary trees the cones are collected in groups of four
or five, or even a larger number, and will remain on the trees, closed,
for several years.”
The Pitch Pine abounds all along the coast from Massachusetts to the
Carolinas; but it is rare in the northern parts of Maine and New
Hampshire and north of these States. It is said to have been very
abundant in the southern part of New England before the eighteenth
century, but large forests of it were consumed in making tar for
exportation to Great Britain. The Pitch Pine woods of the present day
consist of small stunted trees, showing by their inferior thrift that
they stand upon an exhausted soil.
The trees of this species, for the most part too homely and rough to
please the sight, are not generally admired as objects in the landscape;
but there is a variety in their shapes that makes amends for their want
of comeliness and gives them a marked importance in scenery. We do not
in general sufficiently estimate the value of homely objects among the
scenes of nature, though they are indeed the groundwork of all charming
scenery, and set off to advantage the beauty of more comely objects.
They give rest and relief to the eye, after it has felt the stimulus of
beautiful forms and colors, that would soon pall upon the sense; and
they leave imagination free to dress the scene according to our own
fancy.
Hence I am led to prize many a homely tree as possessing a high value,
by exalting our susceptibility to beauty, and by relieving nature of
that monotony which is so apparent when all the objects in a scene are
beautiful. We see this monotony in all dressed grounds of considerable
extent. We soon become weary of their ever-flowing lines of grace and
elegance, and the harmonious blending of forms and colors introduced by
art. This principle explains the difficulty of reading a whole volume
written in verse. We soon weary of luxuries; and after strolling in
grounds laid out in gaudy flower-beds and smooth shaven lawn, the tired
eye rests with tranquil delight upon rude pastures bounded by loose
stone-walls, and hills embroidered with ferns and covered with boulders.
The pines are not classed with deciduous trees, yet they shed their
leaves in autumn with constant regularity. Late in October you may see
the yellow or brown foliage, then ready to fall, surrounding the
branches of the previous year’s growth, forming a whorl of brown fringe,
surmounted by a tuft of green leaves of the present year’s growth. Their
leaves always turn yellow before they fall. In the arbor-vitæ there is a
curious intermixture of brown leaves with the green growth of the past
summer; but, before November arrives, all the faded leaves drop, and the
tree forms a mass of unmingled verdure.
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