JIar. 2, 1908.] AcjncuUural Gazette of N.S. W. 183 



Mediterranean region. This valuable tree does well in the Sydney district 

 and in the coastal district generally. It attains a very large size, and is one 

 •of the Pines which is worthy of attention in any scheme of Australian forestry, 

 involving artificial planting. Because of its tlut top it is the most easily 

 recognised of all Pines. 



XJ 3, L 29 a (.Sydney Botanic Gardens). 



(24.) F. pomJerosa, Dougl. "Western Yellow Pine." "Bull Pine." 



♦Sargent, tt. .560-64. 



The western Yellow Pine or Phui": poiiderosa is the most widely distribi ted Pine-tree 

 •of the mountain forests of western North America, where it spreads from the interior of 

 British Columbia from about latitude .'il" N. southwards to Mexico and eastwards to 

 northern Nebraska, the font-hills of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and western Texas. 

 Usually an inhabitant of dry elevated slopes, where it often forms open forests of great 

 ■extent, it flourishes also on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in the comparatively 

 humid climate of northern California, where it attains its largest size ; and in California 

 it grows occasionally in wet and swampy ground. . . 



A tree of such enormous range over a region of so many different climates has 

 naturally developed many forms, and no other American Pine-tree varies more in size 

 and habit, in the character of the bark, length of leaves and size of cones. Sometimes 

 it is 250 feet high, with a trunk 12 feet in diameter, covered witli bright cinnamon-red 

 bark broken into great plates ; sometimes it attains witli a ditiiculty a height of 50 feet, 

 and its bark is nearly l>lack and deejily furrowed. Such variations in the character of 

 the bark are not always due to climate, and individuals with the red bark of the 

 Californian tree and the black bark of the inliabitant of the arid slopes of the Colorado 

 mountains stand side by side in northern Arizona, to the discouragement of the botanist 

 anxious to understand this tree aud the causes of its variations. One hundred 

 photographs would not be too many to illusttate the appearance of Finus ponderosa in 

 the different parts of the country which it inhalnts ; and an attempt to describe the 

 different forms with any words at our command would be hopeless. {Veifch's 

 Manna/, pp. 364-5.) 



Prof. B. E. Fernow says that this is one of the best timber Pines of the 

 United States, and that it is well adapted to dry, windy, exposed places. It 

 is evidently a hardy Pine. 



This is a species not a great success in Sydney, but hardy in many parts 



of Britain, but I recommend seed for New South Wales to be, as far as 



possible, obtained from Californian trees. 



The wood of Pinus ponderosa varies greatly in qualit}-, strength and durabilitj' in 

 ■flifferent parts of the region over which it is distributed ; the wood of the western tree 

 is heavy, hard, strong, and fine-grained, but not durable in contact with the soil. 

 ( VtitcKn Manual, p. 366). 



See also " Forest Planting Leaflet," Forest Service Circular 72, U.S. 

 Dept. Agriculture. 



L. 30 (Sydney Botanic Gardens). 



Ynv. Jeffreji {P. Jpffreyi,^l\XYv.) " .Jefirey Pine." California. Hee Gai'd. 

 C'hroH. 18S9, V. 361, "f. 65. 



Distinguished in Oregon from the typical Pinus ponderosa by its more pungently 

 aromatic resinous secretions, its stiffer and more elastic leaves, persistent for a longer 

 time ; its yellow-green staniinate flowers, and its larger cones, armed with stronger 

 reflexed prickles. (Vvitch's Manual, p. ,364.) 



On the mountain above the Yosemite ^'alIey is a wonderful forest of Pine-trees, com- 

 posed of P. pondi rosa ?•«/•. Jejfreyi : the trees stand sometimes close together, sometimes at 

 a consideral)le distance apart ; they are often 250 to 3U0 feet high, their massive trunks 

 10 to 12 feet in diameter, and free of branches, except near the top of the tree. There 

 are not many things more impi'essive or more beautiful than these trunks ; the bark is 

 excessively thick, and broken by deep fissures into great armoxu--like plates, across 

 which the sunlight, as it flickers down through the scanty canopy above, casts long 

 shadows. [Veitch's Manual, p. 366.) 



