124 CONIFEILE. 



* * Wings of the large seeds narroui : leaves entire or nearly so : cones subses- 



sile, spreading or declined. 



3. P. flexilis, James. A tree about 60 feet high and 3 to 5 feet thick, with 

 furrowed gray bark : leaves 1 J to 2 inches long, rarely more, with few rows of sto- 

 mata on the sides and usually very few on the back : male flowers in a short spike, 

 oval, 6 or 7 lines long, with 8 or 9 involucral scales ; anthers tipped by a spur or 

 sometimes an incomplete crest : cones oval to subcylindric, 3 to 5 inches long, light 

 brown, with somewhat squarrose scales : seeds oval, compressed, 4 to 6 lines long, 

 the inconspicuous wing less than a line wide, usually remaining attached to the 

 scale: cotyledons 6 to 9. Long's Exp. ii. 27 and 35; Nutt. 1. c., t. 112 (very 

 poor) ; Engelm. Trans. Acad. St. Louis, ii. 208, and Wheeler's Rep. vi. 257 ; Parlat. 

 1. c. 403. 



Var. albicaulis. A tree of 40 or 50 feet in height, on the highest elevations 

 low and shrubby, with very pale bark : cones oval or subglobose, 1| to 3 inches long 

 and 1^ to 2 thick, purple-brown; scales much thicker and somewhat pointed. 

 P. albicaulis, Engelm. 1. c. 209. P. cembroides, Newberry, 1. c. 44, fig. 15. P. 

 Shasta, Carr. Conif. 2 ed. 390. 



The species has been found in California only on Mount Silliman (Brewer} with the variety, 

 and on the Inyo Mountains (Hoffman), and thence eastward on the mountains of Nevada and 

 Arizona to the Rocky Mountains, where it is common from New Mexico to Montana. The 

 variety occurs on all the alpine peaks of the Sierra Nevada from Mono Pass to Mount Shasta and 

 Scott Mountains, and northward to British Columbia, and also in Montana. More closely re- 

 sembling P. Ccmbra of the Old World than our White Pines, but distinguished by the ieaf- 

 structure, which in P. Ccmbra shows parenchymatous ducts in the serrulate leaves. The 

 peripheral ducts in our species are destitute of strengthening cells. P. albicaulis is probably 

 only an alpine form, occupying a higher belt on the mountains, and marked by its short thick 

 and thick-scaled cones. The large seeds are used for food by the Indians. 



2. Apophysis with a mucronate or (very rarelij) blunt protuberance on the back : 

 anthers terminating in a semi-orbicular or almost orbicular crest, except in 

 the first three species. PINASTER. 



* Resin-ducts peripheral: leaves with entire margins and loose deciduous 



sheaths. 



H Leaves 1 to 5 : cones ovate-subglobose, with few very protuberant scales : seeds 



large, almost wingless. 



4. P. monophylla, Torr. & Frem. A small tree, 20 or 25 feet high, with 

 irregularly spreading branches and pale fissured or flaky bark : leaves rigid, spiny- 

 tipped, solitary and terete or rarely in pairs and semiterete, 1| to 2J (mostly 1|) 

 inches long, the sheaths 4 or 5 lines long : male flowers oval, with 6 involucral 

 bracts; anthers terminating in a knob or a few teeth : cones 1 to 2^ inches long 

 and nearly as thick : seeds oval, 6 to 10 lines long, thick-shelled, yellowish brown 

 and mottled: cotyledons 7 to 10. Fremont's Rep. 319, t. 4; Parlat. 1. c. 378; 

 Engelm. Wheeler's Rep. vi. 259. P. Fremontiana, Endl. Conif. 183, in part. 



In the Coast Ranges only about Fort Tejon, and from the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada 

 through Nevada and Arizona to S. Utah, frequent in the mountains and often in the most arid 

 localities ; well known as the "Nut Pine," and the seeds invaluable to the Indians as an article, 

 of food. It was long considered probable that the terete leaf was in reality a connate pair, but 

 the structure shows a single bundle of vessels and therefore a single leaf. The ducts, always 

 peripheral, vary greatly in number, from 2 or 3 to 12 or 14. 



5. P. Parryana, Engelm. A small tree, 20 or 30 feet high and 10 to 18 inches in 

 diameter, with a round top : leaves 3 to 5 (mostly 4) in the sheath, 1 \ to 1| inches 

 long : male flowers oval, witli 4 involucral bracts in the axil of broadly oval acute 

 bracts : cones subglobose, 1 ^ to 2 inches thick, with strongly elevated knobs : seeds 

 oval, 5 to 8 lines long, with a thin light-brown mottled shell : cotyledons 8. 

 Amer. Journ. Sci. 2 ser. xxxiv. 332, note ; Parlat. 1. c. 402. P. Llaveana, Torr. Bot. 

 Mex. Bound. 208, t. 53. 



