Pinus io 59 



PINUS CEMBROIDES 



Pinus cembroides, Zuccarini, in Abhand. Akad. Miinchen, i. 392 (1832); Sargent, Silva JV. Amer. xi. 



47. t. 550 (1897), and Trees N. Amer. 10 (1905); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferce, 321 (1900); 



Masters, in Journ. Linn. Soc. {Hot.) xxxv. 586 (1904) ; Clinton-Baker, Illust. Conif. i. 15 (1909) ; 



Shaw, Pines of Mexico, 5 (1909). 

 Pinus Llaveana, Schlechtendal, in Linncza, xii. 488 (1838). 

 Pinus osteosperma, Engelmann, in Wislizenus, Tour Mexico, Bot. App. 89 (1848). 



A tree, usually 20 ft. high with a short trunk rarely more than a foot in diameter, 

 occasionally attaining in sheltered canons 50 or 60 ft. in height. Bark about \ in. 

 thick, slightly fissured, and separating on the surface into thin reddish brown scales. 

 Young branchlets slender, glaucous, minutely pubescent or glabrous. Buds spindle- 

 shaped, acute at the apex, brownish, about \ in. long, with densely imbricated scales, 

 free at their subulate points. 



Leaves in threes, with occasional two-leaved clusters, densely crowded on the 

 branchlets, persistent for three or four years, nearly appressed together in each cluster, 

 i| to 2 in. long, curved, sharp-pointed, entire in margin, conspicuously whitened 

 with stomatic bands on the inner surface, green with two or three stomatic lines on the 

 outer surface ; resin-canals marginal ; basal sheath T 3 a in. long, the basal segments 

 speedily becoming reflexed and forming a rosette around the bases of the leaf 

 cluster. 



Cones subterminal, nearly sessile, almost globose, 1^ to 2 in. in diameter ; 

 scales few and only well-developed and fertile in the middle of the cone, about an 

 inch long ; apophysis pyramidal, with a sharp transverse keel, and a depressed brown 

 oval unarmed dorsal umbo. Seed, rather more than \ in. long ; ovoid, irregularly 

 conical or obscurely three-angled ; blackish on the lower surface, dark brown on the 

 upper surface ; wing rudimentary, about -fa in. in length, remaining attached to the 

 scale when the seed falls. 



This species is widely distributed through northern Mexico, where it often forms 

 scattered open forests of considerable extent on the lower slopes of the mountain 

 ranges, though it occasionally ascends to 10,000 ft. The seeds are sold in the 

 markets of Mexican cities, forming an important article of food, and are eaten roasted 

 or are ground into flour. This pine also occurs in the mountains of central and 

 southern Arizona, usually above elevations of 6500 ft., and was found by Brandegee, 

 forming a forest, on the top of the Sierra de Laguna in Lower California. 



This species 1 was introduced into England in 1830, when the Horticultural 

 Society obtained a plant from Mr. Otto of Berlin ; and seeds were subsequently sent 

 from Mexico by Hartweg in 1839. The largest specimen is at Highnam, and 

 measured, in 1908, 33 ft. by 2 ft. 8 in. Another at Glasnevin, which is about 25 ft. 

 high, divides into two stems at 8 ft. from the ground, and bears cones freely. 

 There are smaller trees at Kew and Menabilly. (A. H.) 



1 Loudon, in Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2267 (1838), gives an incorrect figure of the cone of P. Llaveana, a synonym of 

 the species ; but in his Trees and Shrubs, 993 (1842), cones of P. cembroides, both from Otto of Berlin and from Hartweg, 

 are correctly figured; and the tree in the Horticultural Society's Garden, which was i,\ ft. high in 1837, appears to have 

 been undoubtedly this species. Cf. also Loudon, Gard. Mag. xv. 128 (1839). 



