Distribution. Light sandy loam or dry rocky ridges, usually forming groves rarely more than a few hundred acres in extent and scattered through forests of other Pines and deciduous-leaved trees; occasionally on sandy flats forming pure forests; Nova Scotia to Lake St. John, westward through Quebec and central Ontario to the valley of the Winnipeg River, and southward to eastern Massachusetts, the mountains of northern Pennsylvania, and to central and southwestern (Port Huron) Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, most abundant, and growing to its largest size in the northern parts of these states; rare and local in eastern Massachusetts and southward. Often planted for the decoration of parks, and the most desirable as an ornamental tree of the Pitch Pines which flourish in the northern states. 20. Pinus contorta Loud. Scrub Pine. [Illustration: Fig. 26] Leaves dark green, slender, 1′—1½′ long, marked by 6—10 rows of stomata on each face, mostly persistent 4—6 years. Flowers orange-red: male in short crowded spikes; female clustered or in pairs on stout stalks. Fruit ovoid to subcylindric, usually very oblique at base, horizontal or declining, often clustered, ¾′—2′ long, with thin slightly concave scales armed with long slender more or less recurved often deciduous prickles, and toward the base of the cone especially on the upper side developed into thick mammillate knobs, becoming light yellow-brown and lustrous, sometimes opening and losing their seeds as soon as ripe, or remaining closed on the branches and preserving the vitality of their seeds for many years; seeds oblique at apex, acute below, about ⅙′ long, with a thin brittle dark red-brown shell mottled with black and wings widest above the base, gradually tapering toward the oblique apex, ½′ long. A tree, sometimes fertile when only a few inches high, usually 15°—20° or occasionally 30° tall, with a short trunk rarely more than 18′ in diameter, comparatively thick branches forming a round-topped compact and symmetrical or an open picturesque head, and stout branchlets light orange color when they first appear, finally becoming dark red-brown or occasionally almost black. Bark of the trunk ¾′—1′ thick, deeply and irregularly divided by vertical and cross fissures into small oblong plates covered with closely appressed dark red-brown scales tinged with purple or orange color. Wood light, hard, strong although brittle, coarse-grained, light brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood; occasionally used for fuel.