150 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFOBNIA 



At the age of seven or eight years it begins to 

 bear cones, not on branches, but on the main axis, 

 and, as they never fall off, the trunk is soon pic 

 turesquely dotted with them.' The branches also 

 become fruitful after they attain sufficient size. 

 The average size of the older trees is about thirty or 

 forty feet in height, and twelve to fourteen inches in 

 diameter. The cones are about four inches long, ex 

 ceedingly hard, and covered with a sort of silicious 

 varnish and gum, rendering them impervious to 

 moisture, evidently with a view to the careful pres 

 ervation of the seeds. 



No other conifer in the range is so closely re 

 stricted to special localities. It is usually found 

 apart, standing deep in chaparral on sunny hill- and 

 canon-sides where there is but little depth of soil, 

 and, where found at all, it is quite plentiful ; but 

 the ordinary traveler, following carriage-roads and 

 trails, may ascend the range many times without 

 meeting it. 



While exploring the lower portion of the Merced 

 Canon I found a lonely miner seeking his fortune 

 in a quartz vein on a wild mountain -side planted 

 with this singular tree. He told me that he called 

 it the Hickory Pine, because of the whiteness and 

 toughness of the wood. It is so little known, how 

 ever, that it can hardly be said to have a common 

 name. Most mountaineers refer to it as " that queer 

 little pine-tree covered all over with burs." In my 

 studies of this species I found a very interesting and 

 significant group of facts, whose relations will be 

 seen almost as soon as stated: 



1st. All the trees in the groves I examined, how 

 ever unequal in size, are of the same age. 



