THE FOEESTS 219 



find trees that are made up of several boles united 

 near the ground, spreading at the sides in a plane 

 parallel to the axis of the mountain, with the ele 

 gant tassels hung in charming order between them, 

 making a harp held against the main wind lines 

 where they are most effective in playing the grand 

 storm harmonies. And besides these there are 

 many variable arching forms, alone or in groups, 

 with innumerable tassels drooping beneath the 

 arches or radiant above them, and many lowly 

 giants of no particular form that have braved the 

 storms of a thousand years. But whether old or 

 young, sheltered or exposed to the wildest gales, 

 this tree is ever found irrepressibly and extrava 

 gantly picturesque, and offers a richer and more 

 varied series of forms to the artist than any other 

 conifer I know of. 



NUT PINE 

 (Finns monopJiylla) 



THE Nut Pine covers or rather dots the eastern 

 flank of the Sierra, to which it is mostly restricted, 

 in grayish, bush-like patches, from the margin of the 

 sage-plains to an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet. 



A more contentedly fruitful and unaspiring coni 

 fer could not be conceived. All the species we 

 have been sketching make departures more or less 

 distant from the typical spire form, but none goes 

 so far as this. Without any apparent exigency of 

 climate or soil, it remains near the ground, throwing 

 out crooked, divergent branches like an orchard 



