NOTES ON WEST AMERICAN CONIFER-S:. 177 



coast form, possibly enough to merit tlie specific name some 

 give it of P. Murrayana. It struck me as I looked at tliis 

 tree that it took just the intermediate ground between the coast 

 and high mountain forms and made even the var. Murrayana 

 of Engelmann unnecessary. The coast tree is a low, bunchy 

 tree, thickly covered with very enduring cones ; the mountain 

 tree is a very tall tree for its size, at times more resembling 

 gigantic bamboos than trees. This form occupied the middle 

 ground. It is never very bunchy, but bears cones, as does the 

 coast form when quite low. As I rode along, the cones on the 

 tops of some of these trees or bushes did not reach my shoul- 



der. Here 



and at times reaches 



goodly proportions. * * * Between Union City and 



observed many [trunks] 



and one old decrepit hero, broken off half-way up, measured 



nearly three feet." ,^ , . , 



Mr. C. V. Piper, writing of this western Washington pme, 

 states, " The old trees that had not been burned were thirty to 

 sixty feet high, twelve to eighteen inches in diameter, bark 

 dark-grayish, an inch and more thick, broken by longitudinal 

 and transverse fissures into small, pyramidal blocks like the 



Q 



considers this pine different from P. contoria. 



variety 



line in width and two to three inches long ; the cones are less 

 elongated than those of the coast form and less persistent. ^ 



This variety may include all the forms of he interior 

 alluded to, but should never be confounded with the amply 



If; 



CALIF OKNI AN FIELD NOTES.-V. 



By Anstruther Davidson, M. D. 



The Cruciferse of Los Angeles County. 



The native plants of this order are numerically, at least, 

 well represented in this county, no less than thirty-four 



