CONIFERS 



27 



aud ascending the coast ranges and western slopes of the Cascade Mountains, where 

 it is not common and where it gradually changes its habit and appearance, the thick 

 deeply furrowed bark of the coast form being found only near the ground, while 

 the bark higher on the stems is thin, light-colored, and inclined to separate into 

 scales, and the leaves are often longer and broader. This is 



Pinus contorta, var. Murrayana, Engelm. Lodge Pole Pine. 



Leaves yellow-green, usually about 2' long, although varying from 1-3' in 

 length and from Jg' to nearly ^' in width. Fruit occasionally opening as soon as 

 ripe but usually remaining closed 

 aud preserving the vitality of 

 the seeds sometimes for twenty 

 years. 



A tree, usually 70-80 but 

 often 150 high, with a trunk 

 generally 2-3 but occasionally 

 5-6 in diameter, slender much- 

 forked branches frequently per- 

 sistent nearly to the base of 

 the stem, light orange-oolored 

 during their early years, some- 

 what pendulous below, ascend- 

 ing near the top of the tree, 

 and forming a narrow pyrami- 

 dal spire-topped head. Bark of the trunk rarely more than ^' thick, close and 

 firm, light orange-brown and covered by small thin loosely appressed scales. Wood 

 light, soft, not strong, close, straight-grained and easily worked, not durable, 

 light yellow or nearly white, with thin lighter colored sapwood ; occasionally 

 manufactured into lumber, also used for railway-ties, mine-timbers, and for 

 fuel. 



Distribution. Common on the Alaska hills in the valley of the Yukon River ; on 

 the interior plateau of northern British Columbia, and eastward to the eastern foot- 

 hills of the Rocky Mountains, covering with dense forests great areas in the basin of 

 the Columbia River ; forming forests on both slopes of the Rocky Mountains of 

 Montana, on the Yellowstone plateau at elevations of 7000-8000; common on the 

 mountains of Wyoming, and extending southward to southern Colorado; common 

 on the ranges of eastern Washington and Oregon, on the mountains of northern 

 California, and southward along the Sierra Nevada, where it attains its greatest size 

 and beauty in alpine forests at elevations between 8000 and 9500 ; in southern 

 California forming the timber-line on the highest peaks of the San Bernardino and 

 San Jacinto Mountains. 



Pl^. 2S 



-I- -I- Cones lateral. 



27. Pinus divarioata, Du Mont de Cours. Gray Pine. Jack Pine. 



Leaves in remote clusters, stout, flat or slightly concave on the inner face, at first 

 light yellow-green, soon becoming dark green, f -1^' long, gradually and irregularly 

 deciduous in their second or third year. Flo"wers : staminate in short crowded 

 clusters, yellow ; pistillate clustered, dark purple, often with 2 clusters produced on 



