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Pitch pine (Pinus rigida Mill.) grows over a wide geographical range - from central Maine to New York and extreme southeastern Ontario, south to Virginia and southern Ohio, and in the mountains to eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, and western South Carolina. Because it grows mostly on the poor...

Balsam fir takes its name from the Latin word for balm. Some people know the tree as the Balm-of-Gilead fir. It has also been called the blister fir, because of the bark blisters that yield Canada balsam, a resin that is used for, among other things, mounting microscope slides. The needles of bal...

White ash (Fraxinus americana L.) derives its common name from the white under-surface of the leaf; the white effect is created by microscopic papillae with a high light-reflecting capacity. The specific name americana was given to the species because of its range in America.

The "green" in green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.) refers to the leaves. They are nearly as bright green on the lower surface as on the upper. The specific Latin name 'pennsylvanica' was given to the species because it occurs in the United States and because in 1785 Pennsylvania and the Ame...

Virginia pine has finally attained its rightful place among trees of commercial importance. It has done so in spite of being called "scrub pine" and "poverty pine" - and in spite of the term "forest weed", which has lingered long in the speech of oldtimers who remember the days of timber-plenty.

Red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) is not only the most important of the spruces; it is also one of the most important of all the conifers in northeastern North America. It is a tree of many uses. The paper industry relies heavily on it for pulpwood; in the variety of its other uses it rivals white ...

Of the birches in the Northeast, the yellow birch is the elite species, by far the most valuable as a timber tree. More than that, it is one of the largest deciduous trees of northeastern America. It may reach 100 feet in height and more than 3 feet in diameter, and may live to 300 years of age. ...

Paper birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh) is commonly known also as white birch. The bark, which gives not only name but also unique character to this tree, is distinguishable from the white bark of other species by its pearly surface, its creamy cast, and its chalky whiteness that rubs off onto clot...

The eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr.), as its common and scientific names imply, is a native of the eastern United States and adjacent Canada. It is one of the four North American species of this genus. The genus name means "yew-leaved" and is of Japanese origin. In 1763 the species w...

Black cherry (Prunus serotina Ehrh.) is the largest of the native cherry trees of the United States. It may grow to more than 100 feet in height, and to as much as 5 feet in diameter. It is the only species of its genus that provides lumber for commerce. And this lumber, because of its stability ...