THE FORESTS 165 



forming a quite marked and distinguishing feature. 

 The needles are of a fine, warm, yellow-green color, 

 six to eight inches long, firm and elastic, and 

 crowded in handsome, radiant tassels on the upturn 

 ing ends of the branches. The cones are about three 

 or four inches long, and two and a half wide, grow 

 ing in close, sessile clusters among the leaves. 



The species attains its noblest form in filled-up 

 lake basins, especially in those of the older yosem- 

 ites, and so prominent a part does it form of their 

 groves that it may well be called the Yosemite 

 Pine. Ripe specimens favorably situated are almost 

 always 200 feet or more in height, and the branches 

 clothe the trunk nearly to the ground, as seen in 

 the illustration. 



The Jeffrey variety attains its finest development 

 in the northern portion of the range, in the wide 

 basins of the McCloud and Pitt rivers, where it 

 forms magnificent forests scarcely invaded by any 

 other tree. It differs from the ordinary form in 

 size, being only about half as tall, and in its redder 

 and more closely furrowed bark, grayish-green fo 

 liage, less divided branches, and larger cones ; but 

 intermediate forms come in which make a clear sepa 

 ration impossible, although some botanists regard it 

 as a distinct species. It is this variety that climbs 

 storm-swept ridges, and wanders out among the vol 

 canoes of the Great Basin. Whether exposed to 

 extremes of heat or cold, it is dwarfed like every 

 other tree, and becomes all knots and angles, wholly 

 unlike the majestic forms we have been sketching. 

 Old specimens, bearing cones about as big as pine 

 apples, may sometimes be found clinging to rifted 



