The White Pine (P. strobus), called also Sapling Pine, and Apple Pine, in various parts of this country, and Weymouth Pine abroad, is undoubtedly the most beautiful North American tree of the genus. The foliage is much lighter in color, more delicate in texture, and the whole tufting of the leaves more airy and pleasing than that of the other species. It is also beautiful in every stage of its growth, from a plant to a stately tree of 150 feet. When it grows in strong soil, it becomes thick and compact in its head; but its most beautiful form is displayed when it stands in a dry and gravelly site; there it shoots up with a majestic and stately shaft, studded every six or eight feet with horizontal tiers of branches and foliage. The hue of the leaves is much paler and less sombre than that of the other native sorts; and being less stiffly set upon the branches, is more easily put in motion by the wind; the murmuring of the wind among the Pine tops is, poetically, thought to give out rather a melancholy sound:- "The pines of Mﾜnalus were heard to mourn, And sounds of woe along the grove were borne," says Virgil, speaking of the European Pine. But the murmur of the slight breeze among the foliage of the White Pine gives out a remarkably soothing and agreeable sound, which agrees better with the description of Leigh Hunt: "And then there fled by me a rush of air That stirr'd up all the other foliage there, Filling the solitude with panting tongues, At which the Pines woke up into their songs, Shaking their choral locks." Pickering, one of our own poets, thus characterizes the melody: "The overshadowing pines alone, through which I roam, Their verdure keep, although it darker looks; And hark! as it comes sighing through the grove. The exhausted gale, a spirit there awakena, That wild and melancholy music makes."
This species-the White Pine-seldom becomes flattened or rounded on the summit in old age, like many other sorts, but preserves its graceful and tapering form entire. From its pleasing growth and color, we consider it by far the most desirable kind for planting in the proximity of buildings, and its growth for an evergreen is also quite rapid.
