40 ' BOTANY. 



or important, in a scientific or economical point of view, than the great Lambert pine. It does 

 not rival that species in the immensity of its size, nor in its value for timber, but the form of 

 the tree is peculiar, and quite unlike that of any other western pine which we saw, and the cones 

 are considerably larger and more ponderous than that of any other species ; and, what is of 

 more importance to the Indians, they contain such stores of eatable nuts as to become a staple 

 article of subsistence in many extensive districts. 



The " nut pine," or, as it is sometimes called from the toughness of the wood, the " wythe 

 pine," nowhere forms forests, but is disseminated very generally over California. It was found 

 by our party in the valleys of the coast ranges, as far north as Fort Lane, in Oregon, though 

 in the interior it does not occur on our route between Pit river and the Columbia. It chooses, 

 in preference, regions unoccupied by other trees, and is generally found scattered sparsely over 

 rough and rocky surfaces, where almost no other plant would take root. 



Douglas, and, copying him, Nuttall, give to this tree almost an alpine station, which does 

 not at all accord with my observations. This was the first pine I saw in California, and we 

 found it growing in Napa, Sonoma, and other valleys of the coast range, and on the borders 

 and at the head of the Sacramento valley, but little above the level of tide water. Subsequently 

 we met with it at various points in northern California, but never at any considerable altitude. 



On our route it occurred most abundantly in the pedj-egal country bordering Pit river, where 

 that stream forces its way through the spur of the Sierra Nevada into the Sacramento valley ; 

 a region which rivals, in the magnitude of its volcanic phenomena, the islands of Haiwaii or 

 Sicily. It is covered with piled up masses or congealed floods of lava, which, rough, ragged, 

 and bare, seem to bid defiance alike to the approaches of animal or vegetable life. Only here 

 and there, in the crevices or hollows of the rocks, narrow and shallow accumulations of sterile 

 soil had taken place, which sustained scarce any vegetable growth, except thickets of the ever- 

 green manzaniia and scattering trees of the nut pine ; both, however, doing their utmost to 

 redeem the district from its hopeless sterility, by producing their berries and nuts in such 

 profusion as to attract and feed large numbers of birds, bears, and Digger Indians. 



Nuttall unaccountably failed to see the nut pine in California, and, therefore, repeats without 

 comment Douglas' description of it. This is to be regretted, for Nuttall's discriminating eye 

 would at once have detected the discrepancies which exist between the tree as it grows and the 

 published description of it. 



After speaking of its alpine habit, which our observations disprove, and of its range north- 

 ward to the Blue mountains, on the upper Columbia, in which he was guided only by the nuts 

 collected by the Indians, and probably misled by referring the nuts of the nut pine of that 

 region to this tree, Douglas says : " The stems of these pines are of a very regular form, and 

 grow straight and tapering to the height of 40 to 140 feet, and are from three to twelve feet in 

 circumference, and, when standing apart, clothed with branches down to the ground." 



An extract from my notes, with the accompanying sketch, (fig. 13,) taken when surrounded 

 by these trees, will show what is the sort of P. sabiniana in all parts of California where we 



saw it. 



"July 28. — To day saw great numbers of the nut pine, sometimes in groves and clusters, more 

 generally as single trees, scattered about among the rocks. The form of the tree, as well as its 

 foliage are peculiar, and readily serve to distinguish it from all other pines I have seen. It 

 has nothing of the conical figure of most coniferous trees, but the trunk soon divides into 

 spreading branches, and the tree has the port of an oak or maple, sometimes even approaching 



