174 EKYTHEA. 



trees in better soil near the coast were devoid of fastened 

 cones, and their long outstretched limbs or depressed, strati- 

 fied heads, recalled the famous Cypress of Monterey. 



PiNUS CONTOETA, Dougl. Belonging naturally to boreal 

 and littoral regions, this pine battles for and holds long 

 stretches of northern beaches and scores of promontories 

 until, meeting with a stronger tree (or it may be a truer expres- 

 sion to say it is overcome by the rising temperature of a 

 southern clime), it comes to a halt on the coast of Mendocino. 

 But these southernmost trees are the most robust of their 

 species. Eioting in the rich loam near the mouth of the Noyo 

 Eiver and northward, are trees two to five feet in diameter 

 and fifty to eighty feet high, with deeply rimose bark, two 

 inches thick. The majority, however, creeping too near the 

 sea, are beaten prostrate by the ocean storms and become low, 

 close-set, scrubby trees, with masses of branchlets laden with 

 large and dark green, persistent leaves and numerous elon- 

 gated cones, the whole forming breastworks, or wind-breaks, 

 behind which hosts of tender plants flaunt their profusion of 

 flowers in saucy proximity to the ocean. 



So perfect a protection against the rigors of winter are these 

 masses of pines that the dairymen at Fort Bragg, twelve miles 

 north of Mendocino, have cut roadways down into them and 

 erected feeding racks for hay, and there peacefully ruminate 

 the drowsy kine, nearly as well sheltered as if in State of 

 Maine barns. 



^ We have seen how this pine will battle for life on a slim 

 diet that starves it to a pigmy on the barrens. The inherent, 

 normal strength of a line of development is never more in 

 evidence than when exhibiting ability to conform to coudi- 

 tions and preserve its integrity, though necessitated the while 

 to change its features (until almost past recognition) to achieve 

 success. So the constitution of this pine enables it to leave 

 its favored home and penetrate the interior, for it is found in 

 the sphagnum swamps and around the tide pools of Puget 

 Sound, and also inhabits the gravelly plains of Oregon and 

 Washington where even the lion-hearted Douglas Spruce 



