THE PLANT WOKLD 33 



noticed a number of bright green patches of vegetation that stood out 

 in strong contrast to the brown volcanic rocks a thousand or more feet 

 below the summit. After a somewhat laborious climb we gained the 

 line of one of these patches of green and found it to be composed 

 almost entirely of the foliage of this primrose. It was almost past 

 flowering, but in sheltered nooks we found a number of blooming 

 scapes still in their prime. It must have been a most gorgeous sight 

 when in its perfection, and was worth going miles to see. 



The plate of Primula Pan-yi, which we are able to present, is from 

 a photograph made by Mr. Whitman Cross, of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, in the mountains of southwestern Colorado. 



Briefer Articles. 



A FOSSIL NUT PINE. 



Fossil remains that can with reasonable certainty be referred to the 

 genus Pinus are of quite common and wide distribution in this country. 

 These species have been variously based on wood, leaves, cones and 

 seeds, many of them being clearly of the type of the white pine {Pinus 

 Sfrobns). It was with a good deal of pleasure that I received some 

 months ago, from Mr. Waldemar Lindgren, of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey, a finely preserved cone that obviously belonged to the group of 

 nut or piiion pines. It was obtained by one of his associates in the Snake 

 River Valley, near Bunard's Ferry, Idaho. Unfortunately it was not 

 found in its natviral position, having been picked up by a local ranch 

 owner, but with little doubt it is from the Pliocene lake beds that are so 

 abundantly exposed in that vicinity. This cone, to which I have given 

 the name of Pinus Lindgreiiii [See Torreya, Yol. I., Oct., 1901], is, as may 

 be seen from the figures, [fig. 1] ovoid or nearly globular in shape. The 

 lower or fertile scales are very thick, and the nut is relatively large. The 

 cone is irregularly broken through the fertile portion, thus well exposing 

 the large seed cavities at the base of the scales. [See fig. 2.] In several 

 of the seed cavities fragments of the very thin and evidently brittle shell 

 of the seed can still be observed, and in one cavity a brownish, carbon- 

 aceous mass appears to represent the seed itseK. 



So far as I am now aware, this is the first undoubted nut pine to be 

 described in a fossil state from this country. In the compact, almost 

 globular, shape of the cone, this pine seems most closely to resemble the 

 jiifion {Pinus edulis), but the size and shape of the scales, and the larger 



