366 PINUS PONDEROSA. 



the year previous near the Spokane river in north Oregon (now 

 Washington). Throughout Great Britain, from Perthshire southwards, 

 this Pine has proved quite hardy, and it thrives under various 

 conditions in the many localities in which it has been planted, 

 increasing in height from 12 to 18 inches annually, the slower 

 growth occurring in the midland and south-eastern counties of 

 England. Generally the primary branches grow faster in proportion 

 to the elongation of the trunk in this country than in California, so 

 that P. pomlerosa in Great Britain rarely has the lank, constricted 

 habit shown in photographs of California!! trees. 



The variety Jeffrey^ hitherto regarded as specifically distinct from 

 Pinus ponderosa by foresters and arboriculturists, and which takes its 

 name from John Jeffrey, who collected seeds of it for the Scottish 

 Oregon Association in 1851, has a considerable range on the high 

 mountains extending from western Montana through Oregon and Idaho 

 into California. On the mountain above the Yosemite valley is ;i 

 wonderful forest of Pine trees composed of P. ponderosa var. Jeffreyi ; 

 the trees stand sometimes close together, sometimes at a considerable 

 distance apart ; they are often 250 to 300 feet high, their massive 

 trunks 10 to 12 feet in diameter, and free of branches except near 

 the top of the tree. There are not many things more impressive or 

 more beautiful than these trunks ; the bark is excessively thick and 

 broken by deep fissures into great armour-like plates across which 

 the sunlight as it nickers down through the scanty canopy above, casts 

 long shadows. The branches are few and small in proportion to the 

 trunks, and bear at their ends great brush-like clusters of pale blue- 

 green foliage, and immense quantities of large chestnut-brown cones which 

 in early autumn sometimes cover the ground under the trees. * 



The variety scopulorum denotes the smaller tree inhabiting the Rocky 

 Mountains from British Alberta southwards through eastern Montana, 

 Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado to western Texas. In this 

 comparatively dry region Pinus ponderosa often becomes a stunted, 

 scraggy-looking tree with gaunt denuded limbs and scanty foliage ; such 

 a tree is portrayed in the "Gardeners' Chronicle" of June 2 2nd, 1878. 

 Another geographical form which occurs on the mountains of southern 

 Arizona, has longer and broader leaves that are sometimes 14 or 

 15 inches in length. This is the P. latifolia of Sargent,! and the 

 P. Mayriana of Sudworth ; it is described in the "Silva of North 

 America " as P. ponderosa var. Mayriana, 



The wood of Pinus ponderosa varies greatly in quality, strength and 

 durability in different parts of the region over which it is distributed ; 

 the wood of the western tree is heavy, hard, strong and fine-grained, 

 but not durable in contact with the soil ; that of the variety Jeffreyi 

 is coarser in grain and very resinous ; and that of the var. scopulorum 

 is coarser grained, harder and more brittle.! P. ponderosa timber is largely 

 used throughout the region for constructive purposes generally, railway 

 ties, fencing, fuel, etc., especially in the States of Washington, Oregon, 

 Idaho and south Dakota. 



* Garden and Forest, IV. 457 (1891) ; Idem, II. 496, with rig. (1889). 

 t Silva of North America, XI. 82. 



