173 



NOTES ON WEST AMERICAN CONIFER^.— VI. 



r 



By J. G. Lemmon. 



The ThimWe-cone Pines. 



I shall not soon forget the trip^ to the so-called "Plains of 

 Mendocino," or my surprise as the carriage suddenly emerged 

 from the forest of Prickle-cone Pine and entered upon the 

 white, much exposed barrens. 



" O, see those little berry bushes!" exclaimed Mrs- Lemmon, 

 as I sprang out and pulled up a handful of tiny little cypress 

 trees, four to six inches high, almost leafless, yet bearing one 

 or more shining, globular cones upon or near their summits. 

 Larger trees, straight and slender as walking sticks and 

 knobbed with cones from bottom to top, were near them. But 

 what is that curious thing yonder ? A moment after I stood 

 beside a conical little tree resembling the artificial dwarfs in 

 Japanese gardens, and stooped to pluck cones from the top of 



Bolander's Pine ! 



This poor streak of white clayey barren stretches along 

 parallel with the ocean for miles on miles, sprinkled with 

 miniature cypress and pine trees. In the course of half an 

 hour depressions and shallow ravines were met with. In 

 these a little good soil had accumulated, which, with the 

 moisture of winter, fosters the growth of trees fifteen to 

 thirty feet high, having rounded heads, larger cones and 

 leaves, thicker bark, etc., connecting the little dwarfs of the 

 plain with the typical and abundant Piniis conioria of the 



north coast. 



Trees of the cypress,^ too, were found on the borders of the 

 plain that attain a large size, two to three feet in diameter^ 

 conical in outline, and curiously holding in the bark through- 

 out the tree their much larger cones which were one inch 

 thick and composed of eight developed scales. But other 



ISee "The Promontory Pines of Mendocino,'* p. 157 supra, of which 

 this article is a continuation- 

 2Cupressus Goveniana. 



Ebythea, Vol. IL, No. 11, [1 November, 1891.] 



