=Habit.=--The only New England conifer that drops its leaves in the fall; a tree 30-70 feet high, reduced at great elevations to a height of 1-2 feet, or to a shrub; trunk 1-3 feet in diameter, straight, slender; branches very irregular or in indistinct whorls, for the most part nearly horizontal; often ending in long spire-like shoots; branchlets numerous, head conical, symmetrical while the tree is young, especially when growing in open swamps; when old extremely variable, occasionally with contorted or drooping limbs; foliage pale green, turning to a dull yellow in autumn. =Bark.=--Bark of trunk reddish or grayish brown, separating at the surface into small roundish scales in old trees, in young trees smooth; season's shoots gray or light brown in autumn. =Winter Buds and Leaves.=--Buds small, globular, reddish. Leaves simple, scattered along the season's shoots, clustered on the short, thick dwarf branches, about an inch long, pale green, needle-shaped; apex obtuse; sessile. =Inflorescence.=--March to April. Flowers lateral, solitary, erect; the sterile from leafless, the fertile from leafy dwarf branches; sterile roundish, sessile; anthers yellow: fertile oblong, short-stalked; bracts crimson or red. =Fruit.=--Cones upon dwarf branches, erect or inclining upwards, ovoid to cylindrical, 1/2-3/4 of an inch long, purplish or reddish brown while growing, light brown at maturity, persistent for at least a year; scales thin, obtuse to truncate; edge entire, minutely toothed or erose; seeds small, winged. =Horticultural Value.=--Hardy in New England; grows in any good soil, preferring moist locations; the formal outline of the young trees becomes broken, irregular, and picturesque with age, making the mature tree much more attractive than the European species common to cultivation. Rarely for sale in nurseries, but obtainable from collectors. To be successfully transplanted, it must be handled when dormant. Propagated from seed. =Note.=--The European species, with which the mature plant is often confused, has somewhat longer leaves and larger cones; a form common in cultivation has long, pendulous branches. [Illustration: PLATE I.--Larix Americana.] 1. Branch with sterile and fertile flowers. 2. Sterile flowers. 3. Different views of stamens. 4. Ovuliferous scale with ovules. 5. Fruiting branch. 6. Open cone. 7. Cone-scale with seeds. 8. Leaf. 9. Cross-section of leaf. PINUS. The leaves are of two kinds, primary and secondary; the primary are thin, deciduous scales, in the axils of which the secondary leaf-buds stand; the inner scales of those leaf-buds form a loose, deciduous sheath which encloses the secondary or foliage leaves, which in our species are all minutely serrulate. Pinus Strobus, L. WHITE PINE. =Habitat and Range.=--In fertile soils; moist woodlands or dry uplands. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, through Quebec and Ontario, to Lake Winnipeg.