36 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Pimis Coultcri, which in many respects resembles the last, is more 

 southern in its habit, occupying the mountains of California south of 

 San Francisco. The cones are similar to those of P. Sabiniatia, but 

 much longer, often one foot in length by five or six inches in diameter, 

 and having a conical form. The seeds are large, bean-shaped, and 

 edible. Like those of all the nut-pines they have a strong terebinthine 

 taste when raw, but this disapi)ears when they are roasted, as they 

 generally are by Indians and whites. 



J]y far the most interesting and economically important of the 

 nut-jtines is the "Pinon" (P. edulis), which inhabits the almost desert 

 portions of the Great Basin of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. 

 In some parts of Nevada and Utah its monophyllous variety occupies, 

 with a sparse and scattered growth, large areas, where it is the only 

 tree, except a bushy cedar {Jicniperiis Utahensis). In Arizona, New 

 Mexico, and Southwestern Colorado, its normal or two-leaved form is 

 everywhere present, sometimes forming what might be called a forest- 

 growth, though the trees are never large nor closely set. In all these 

 regions the wood of the " Pinon " is the chief dependence of the lead- 

 smelters for fuel, since it is quite dense, and, unlike that of any other 

 conifer, furnishes good charcoal. Equally valuable is this tree to the 

 native population, from the subsistence afforded by its nuts. The 

 cones are small and ovoid in form ; the wingless seeds are elliptical 

 in outline, half an inch in length, and very palatable when roasted. 

 The tree is said to fruit abundantly but once in three years ; differ- 

 ent colonies, fortunately, having different periods, so that there is no 

 year in which there is entire failure of the crop, except when one of 

 the terrible droughts characteristic of the climate occurs. 



At the season of the nut-harvest the natives migrate to the groves 

 of " Pinon," and gather the nuts in large quantities to be stored for 

 future use. They are treasured as their choicest delicacies ; and a 

 handful of pine-nuts is to an Indian child as much of a treat as are 

 Bugar-plums to our boys and girls. Some of the Pinon-groves on the 

 flanks of the Sierra de la Plata in Southwestern Colorado have evi- 

 dently been visited periodically by the Pueblo Indians for ages ; for 

 fragments of their peculiar ornamented pottery cover the ground ; at 

 least every square yard has its potsherd. 



The seeds of Pimisflexilis and P. albicauUs are smaller than those 

 already mentioned, and the trees are more Alpine in habit and scat- 

 tered ; the nuts have, therefore, comparatively little value to the In- 

 dians, but they are an all-important source of food to the squirrels 

 which inhabit the regions where they grow. 



The more southern nut-pines, Pimis cembroides and P. Parryiana, 

 arc similar in tluir habit to P. edulis, of which they are, indeed, prob- 

 ably varieties. 'J'heir seeds, like those of the Pinon, are used by the 

 natives in the same way, and are only less important because the trees 

 are more restricted in their rancre. 



