130 CONIFEROUS TREES 



striking and pleasing appearance. The leaves are 

 five in a sheath, 6 inches long, slender and limp, 

 the edges rough, and of a silvery bluish tinge. 

 The cones are remarkable, being produced freely 

 even by young specimens, and owing to their great 

 length and open character when ripe, and also to 

 their peculiar yellowish brown colour, they give 

 to the tree a decided character. They are often 

 as much as 8 inches long, by 3 inches diameter, 

 and usually curved. For planting in rich, damp 

 loam, and where shelter is afforded, this pine is 

 valuable, but in too light soils and in exposed 

 sites it wears anything but a pleasing appearance. 

 P. FLEXiLis, James. Eastern slopes of Rocky 

 Mountains, Montana to New Mexico, Texas, Utah, 

 Nevada, Arizona. 1851. — Not generally cultivated 

 in this country. When young, the tree has a 

 Cembra-like appearance, but is far less symmetrical 

 in branch arrangement, these being long, slender, 

 and of upward growth, the latter a distinguishing 

 characteristic of the tree. The leaves, five in a 

 sheath, are fully 2 inches long, glaucous green, 

 and plentifully arranged on the lithe and thin 

 branchlets, those towards the extremities adpressed 

 to the branches and pointing forward ; while the 

 cones are comparatively blunt, 3 inches long by 

 nearly 2 inches through at the widest part. This 

 species has attained to nearly 30 feet in height on 

 gravelly soil at Kew. According to Murray, who 

 saw it wild on the Rocky Mountains and the 

 Sierra Nevada, it varies greatly in stature and 

 habit. High up on the mountains, where it is 

 exposed to the coldest blasts, '* it is,'' he says, 

 " reduced to a trailing shrub i or 2 feet high, 



