THE TRUE PINES. ]89 



six inches in length, and two inches and a half broad at the widest 

 part, which is rather below the middle ; the base is unequal- 

 sided, owing' to the numerous very small scales there curving 

 to one side, and forming a kind of hood round the base of the 

 cone, which is quite sessile, or without any footstalk. Scales, 

 largest at the widest part of the cone, which is about one-third 

 from the base, then diminishing gradually towards the point, 

 which is rather blunt ; those scales nearest the base are very small, 

 particularly the first four or five rows, and more elevated in the 

 centre, which is terminated by a stout broad point ; the larger 

 scales are rather thin, and slightly elevated, or nearly flat, three- 

 quarters of an inch broad, and half an inch deep, with a 

 slightly elevated ridge across the middle of each, which is ter- 

 minated in the centre by a very stout spine, quite straight ; 

 each cone has from thirteen to fifteen rows of scales. Male 

 flowers, large, cylindrical, and in large, compact clusters ; each 

 scale contains within it two seeds, which are rather below the 

 middle size, but with wings rather more than an inch in length, 

 and half an inch in breadth. 



This noble pine, which seems to be entirely a mountain 

 species, sometimes attains a height of £00 feet, with a stem 

 twenty-eight feet in circumference. Mr. Hartweg flrst met 

 with it on the mountains of Santa Cruz, a coast range 

 running due north across the bay from Monterey, and distant 

 by water about twenty-five miles, although sixty miles by 

 land ; afterwards he found it in the Sacramento country, grow- 

 ing upon the ridge generally termed by emigrants from the 

 United States, the Californian Mountains. Mr. Hartweg 

 says, " After crossing the Chuba River, you pass the prairie, 

 and enter the mountains near Bear Creek, where you have to 

 pass through an interminable wood of Pinus Sabiniana, and in 

 ascending the gradual acclivity of the mountain, you lose the 

 region of Pinus Sabiniana, and enter that of Pinus Benthamiana, 

 which seems to be characteristic of the upper region." Some 

 trees of this noble pine attain an enormous size ; the largest of 

 which Mr. Hartweg measured in this locality was twenty-eight 

 feet in circumference, and 220 feet in height. It generally grows 

 in masses or intermixed with a few solitary Pinus Lambertiana, 



