CONIFERS 



11 



dark red. Fruit subglobose, l'-2' broad ; seeds subcylindrical or obscurely tri- 

 angular, more or less compressed at the pointed apex, full and rounded at the base, 

 nearly black on the lower side and dark chestnut-brown on the upper, ^' |' long, 

 their wings light chestnut-brown, about 3^2' ^vide. 



A bushy tree, with a short trunk 

 rarely more than a foot in diameter 

 and a broad round-topped head, usually 

 15''-20^ high, stout spreading branches, 

 and slender dark orange - colored 

 branchlets covered at first with matted 

 pale deciduous hairs, dark brown and 

 sometimes nearly black at the end of 

 five or six years; in sheltered canons 

 on the mountains of Arizona and in 

 Lower California occasionally 50 or 

 60 tall. Bark about I' thick, irregu- 

 larly divided by remote shallow fis- 

 sures and separated on the surface into 



numerous large thin light red-brown scales. Wood light, soft, close-grained, pale 

 clear yellow. The large oily seeds are an important article of food in northern 

 Mexico, and are sold in large quantities in Mexican towns. 



Distribution. Mountain ranges of central and southern Arizona, usually only 

 above elevations of 6500, often covering their upper slopes with open forests; 

 Lower California, and over many of the mountain ranges of northern Mexico. 



11. Pinus edulis, Engelm. Nut Pine. Pinon. 

 Leaves in 2 or rarely in 3-leaved clusters, stout, semiterete or triangular, rigid, 

 incurved, dark green, marked by numerous rows of stomata, f -1^' long, deciduous 

 during the third or not until the fourth or fifth year, dropping irregularly and some- 

 times persistent for eight or nine years. Flo'wers : staminate in elongated clusters, 

 dark red; pistillate short-stalked. Fruit subcylindrical, f'-l^' long and almost 

 as broad; seeds ovate, acute, full and rounded at the base, dark red-brown on the 



lower and light orange-yellow on the upper 



side, ^' long, with a thin brittle shell, their 



wings light reddish brown and about ^' wide. 



A tree, rarely 30-40 high, with a 



short often divided trunk occasionally 2^ 



in diameter, stout branches forming at first 



a broad compact pyramid, and in old age a 



dense low round-topped head, and stout 



branchlets orange color during their first 



and second years, finally becoming light gray 



or dark brown sometimes tinged with red. 



Bark ^'-^' thick and irregularly divided into 



connected ridges covered by small closely 



appressed light brown scales tinged with 



red or orange color. "Wood light, soft, not strong, brittle, pale brown; largely 



used for fuel and fencing, and as charcoal used in smelting; in western Texas 



occasionally sawed into lumber. The seeds form an important article of food 



