Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/365

Rh ventures profitable, large areas of old dunes have been cleared of their spruce pines and planted in pineapples. The pineapple is peculiar in belonging to a family of air-plants (Bromeliaceæ), and taking very little nourishment from the soil.

Our southernmost conifer, Pinus Caribæa, seems to have no distinctive common name in general use. (It has been called "Cuban pine" by several writers on forestry in recent years, but that name would be more appropriate for Pinus Cubensis, a species confined to eastern Cuba.) It is abundant in South Florida, and may extend along the coast to Georgia and Mississippi, though this point has not yet been determined beyond question. It is said to occur also in the Bahamas, western Cuba, the Isle of Pines, and British Honduras. It grows in pure stands, like the long-leaf, and south of the Caloosahatchee River it is almost the only pine, and more abundant than all other trees combined. It is confined to low regions within 100 feet of sea-level, and the saw-palmetto is usually the most conspicuous feature of the undergrowth (in Florida, but not in the tropics, for this palmetto does not grow farther south).

It grows mostly in sandy soil north of Miami, and on limestone rock south of there, where sand is scarce. Although it occupies the driest soils within its range (quite unlike its near relative P. Elliottii), the country where it grows is so low that there is usually water within two or three feet of the surface. The climate is subtropical, with no snow and little frost, and the summers are much wetter than the winters.

This species withstands fire about as well as P. palustris and P. Elliottii do, or perhaps even better, and is exposed to it as often.

Its wood is similar to that of the long-leaf pine, except that it is more resinous and brittle, and therefore is not used much for lumber except locally where there is no other pine within easy reach. The gum does not flow readily, and consequently very little turpentine is obtained from this species; but it is not unlikely that the increasing scarcity of long-leaf pine may before long bring about the invention of some method for utilizing P. Caribæa as a profitable source of naval stores. The range of this species lies almost entirely south of the cotton crop, but the soil or rock in which it grows is being planted extensively to grape-fruit, mangoes, avocadoes, and other tropical fruits.