THE PINE SUB-FAMILY. 113 



It forms a small tree, probably not exceeding twenty 

 feet in height, but well furnished with side branches and 

 with a peculiar, glaucous, bluish-green foliage, which pro- 

 duces a beautiful efiect. The seeds, like many others of 

 our western species of pines, are edible and very nutri- 

 tious, with shells so thin that they may readily be broken 

 with the fingers. They constitute a large part of the sub- 

 sistence of the Indians that inhabit those regions, and are 

 gathered by them and stored away for winter use. 



Dr. Engelmann says of this plant in a recent article, 

 that " it has single leaves, and not connate, as Endlicher 

 would have it." This is one of those perplexing misun- 

 derstandings that will occasionally happen among authors. 

 Our own specimen was grown by the -late John Evans, a 

 botanist of no ordinary talent, who procured the seed, if 

 we mistake not, from its native locality. However, it re- 

 tains all of the specific distinctions as described by End- 

 licher, having three leaves in a sheath and being only very 

 rarely monophyllous on the young shoots. This mono- 

 phyllous state is not unfrequeiitly met with in other spe- 

 cies, and its frequent occurrence in this particular one is 

 doubtless the cause of the misunderstanding. 



The P. Fremontiana is one of the very slow growing 

 species that require a number of years to arrive at maturi- 

 ty, and consequently may not, on this account, prove so 

 popular as some others. 



This edible, or nut-pine section, is of so much interest, 

 that we make the following extract from Dr. Engelmann's 

 article. " This very natural little group is characterized by 

 the small, almost globose cones, the scales bearing large py- 

 ramidal apophyses and large edible seeds,the wings of which 

 remain attached to the scale, which, I suspect, is the casein 

 all ' wingless ' seeds of pines ; in jR Pinea, however, the 

 wing is very distinct, and detaches itself clearly from the 

 scale, and at the same time also from the seed itself, which is 

 likewise the case in the closely allied, though 5-leaved Cal- 



