160 ERYTHEA. 



to discuss the splendid specimens of Oregon White Fir 

 {Abies grandiSy LindL), Douglas Spruce, or Califoraia Nut- 

 meg, though I must note in passing that the lumbermen here 

 still call young trees of Douglas Spruce "Oregon Pine," while 

 older ones they name " Eed Fir." 



r 



PiNUS MURICATA, Don. As stated, right on the promon- 

 tories near Mendocino City are a few trees of the little low- 

 browed, dark-green, dense-foliaged, narrow-coned Pinus 

 coniorta, or North Coast Pine, at first scarcely distinguishable 

 from the larger, lighter colored and larger coned trees of P- 

 muricaiay which, engulfing the smaller pine at this point, 

 extends inland in great abundance until meeting witli the 

 Coast Redwood and Douglas Spruce. 



The Prickle-Cone Pine is well named Pinus muricata, it 

 being distinguished by formidable prickles. Tbe ovate cones, 

 in size ranging from two to four inches long and half as wide, 

 are armed throughout with highly raised apophyses termi- 

 nated by stout, persistent prickles. Like the other species of 

 the group Laterales, the cones arise singly or in whorls of 

 two or more around the branches, taking the place of 

 branchlets — all pine cones being merely condensed and much 

 modified branchlets. 



It often happens that f^ones are interspersed with branch- 

 lets in the same whorl. When the growth of the tree is slow 

 the whorls of cones are often so close together that they 

 commingle, giving the appearance of irregularity "expressed 

 by the word "clustered" in descriptions of this pine. This 

 irregularity sometimes results from the superabundance of 

 cones in a whorl, some members of it being crowded out of 

 place and projecting their points at yarious angles. Nor- 

 mally all the cones of this group are declined, and all are 

 more or less gibbous on the exterior side, with larger scales. 



The cones of Finns muricata generally remain closed a 

 few years, retaining their seeds. They usually open at the 

 time the leaves, at the same point, fall away from the stems; 

 their peduncles are soon stretched and at lent^th broken 



