conifers. SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 37 



ranges of New Mexico and northern Arizona, generally at elevations of from seven to eight thousand 

 feet, and is scattered through the forests of the Huachuca and Chiricahua Mountains of southern 

 Arizona. Pinus flexilis most frequently grows singly or in small groves among other conifers, but is 

 the principal tree on the upper foothills of the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, 

 where it remains low and round-topped, forming an open stunted forest ; and on many of the ranges 

 of central Nevada on slopes and benches from seven to ten thousand feet above the sea-level it makes 

 extensive open forests, and is the most valuable timber-tree, giving the name of White Pine to several 

 mountain ranges and districts, 1 and attaining its largest size on the mountains of northern New Mexico 

 and Arizona. 2 



The wood of Pinus flexilis is light, soft, and close-grained; it is pale clear yellow, turning red on 

 exposure to the air, with thin nearly white sapwood, and contains inconspicuous narrow bands of small 

 summer cells, numerous large resin passages, and many prominent medullary rays. The specific gravity 

 of the absolutely dry wood is 0.4358, a cubic foot weighing 27.16 pounds. In northern Montana, in 

 central Nevada, Utah, and New Mexico, it is sometimes manufactured into lumber which is full of 

 knots but is used in construction and for various domestic purposes. 



Pinus flexilis was discovered in 1820 in Colorado near the base of Pike's Peak by Dr. Edwin 

 James, 3 the naturalist and surgeon of Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. It was probably 

 introduced into cultivation by Dr. C. C. Parry, 4 who first visited Colorado in 1861, and gathered the 

 seeds of several coniferous trees. In the eastern United States it has grown very slowly, and gives no 

 promise of becoming a valuable garden ornament ; but in Europe it is more vigorous, and one specimen, 

 at least, has produced cones in England. 5 



1 Sargent, Am. Jour. Sci. ser. 3, xvii. 420 {The Forests of Central 5 During the autumn of 1896 a specimen of Pinus flexilis in the 

 Nevada). Royal Gardens at Kew produced cones {The Garden, li. 73). 



2 See Merriam, North American Fauna, No. 3, 121. This tree is twenty-five feet high, with a trunk two feet nine inches 



3 See ii. 96. in circumference at the base, and two feet in circumference at six 



4 See vii. 130. feet above the surface of the ground. 



