126 CONIFERS. 



seeds dark brown, 4 lines long ; wing 10 to 12 lines long, widest above the middle : 

 cotyledons 6 to 9. Loud. Arbor, iv. 2243 ; Newberry, 1. c. 3G, t. 4 ; Parlat. 1. c. 

 395; Engelm. Wheeler's Rep. vi. 261. P. Eenthamiana, Hartw. Journ. Hort. Soc. 

 ii. 189. P. Beardsleyi and Craigana, Murr. Edinb. ]S T ew Phil. Journ. i. 286. 



Var. Jeffrey!. A tree 100 to 200 feet high, with a more rounded top, more 

 finely cleft and darker bark, and paler leaves 4 to 9 inches long : male flowers 1 

 inches long: cones larger, 5 to 12 inches long, lighter brown, on short peduncles, 

 fewer in a cluster, with thinner apophyses, and slender prickles hooked backward : 

 seeds 4 to 7 lines long ; wings 12 or 13 lines long : cotyledons 7 to 11. P. Jeffreyi, 

 Murr. 1. c. xi. 224, t. 8, 9 ; Parlat. 1. c. 393. 



Var. scopulorum. A smaller tree (80 to 100 feet high) : leaves 3 to 6 inches 

 long, often in pairs : male flowers an inch long : cones smaller, 2 or 3 (rarely 4) 

 inches long, grayish brown, with stout prickles : seeds 2| to 3 lines long, the wings 

 9 to 1 2 lines : cotyledons 6 to 9. P. ponderosa of the Rocky Mountain floras. 



The widest spread western pine ; the original form in California and Oregon, at low and high 

 altitudes and even in the plains, often associated with P. Lambertiana and Abies conco/or ; the 

 var. Jeffreyi usually on mountains above 5,000 feet altitude, especially on the eastern slope of the 

 Sierra Nevada, where it is apt to grow in the most arid localities, ranging into Oregon. The, 

 third form is found throughout the Rocky Mountains. A magnificent tree, known throughout 

 the west as the "Yellow Pine," and vying with the Sugar Pine and Sequoias, with very thick 

 bark (in large trees 3 or 4 inches thick) and unusually thick sap-wood, which shows 100 to 200 

 annual rings before it becomes heart- wood. The latter is yellow, heavy and veiy resinous. The 

 var. Jeffreyi has often been considered distinct, but connecting forms are not rare ; one of these 

 is P. df.flexa, Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. 209, t. 56. The rows of stomata are often, but by no 

 means always, more distant in var. Jeffreyi than in the typical form. The leaves persist about 

 three years and are therefore always found brush-like at the end of the branchlets, except in 

 young shoots. The parenchymatous ducts (2 or 3 or more) of all the forms are generally very 

 small, and are always surrounded with some (often many) strengthening cells, which are also 

 found within the sheath. P. Jeffreyi is one of several species (P. Balfouriima, P. Murrayana, 

 Abies Pattoniana, etc.) which were collected by Mr. Jeffrey, and described by Prof. Balfour 

 anonymously (with figures by Greville) in what is sometimes cited as the " Report of the Oregon 

 Committee." The authority for the specific names is given variously by different authors; for- 

 tunately most of them may be referred to other species. 



H- -H- -w- Leaves in pairs. 



9. P. contorta, Dougl. A low tree, 5 to 15 or rarely 20 to 25 feet high and 

 6 inches in diameter, with a rounded or depressed top and thin smoothish bark : 

 leaves 1 to 1 J inches long by half a line wide, strongly and closely serrulate ; bracts 

 scarcely fringed : male flowers cylindrical, \ inch long, in a spike 1 or 2 inches in 

 length ; the outer pair of the 6 involucral bracts nearly as long as the inner ones ; 

 anthers with semicircular crests : cones clustered, oval or subcylindric, very oblique, 

 with strong knobs and delicate prickles, or rarely almost without knobs, very often 

 serotinous (remaining closed for several or many years) : seeds black, grooved, 2 

 lines long ; wings 6 lines long, widest above the base, tapering upward : cotyledons 

 5, rarely 4. Loud. Arbor, ii. 2292, and Encyc. 975, fig. 915. P. inops, Bong. 

 Veg. Sitch. 45 ; Hook. Fl. Bor.-Am. ii. 161. P. Bolanderi, Parlat. 1. c. 379. 



Var. Murrayana. Much taller and straighter, 80 to 1 20 feet high and 4 to 6 

 feet ill diameter, with a conical head and thin scaly light grayish-brown bark : 

 leaves 1 to 3 (mostly about 2) inches long, f to 1 line wide, light green, delicately 

 serrulate ; sheaths 4 to 6 lines long, or old ones 1 to 1 : male flowers with 6 to 8 

 involucral bracts : cones very rarely lateral, less oblique, often opening at maturity 

 and deciduous : wings of seeds longer. P. contorta, Newberry, 1. c. 34, t. 5, and 

 of the Californian botanists; Parlat. 1. c. 381, in part. P. inops, Benth. PI. Hartw. 

 337. P. Murrayana, Murr. 1. c. 226. P. contorta, var. latifolia, Engelm. in Bot. 

 King Exp. 331, Porter's Fl. Colorado, 129, and Wheeler's Rep. vi. 262. 



The original Douglasian P. cmitorta, which came from the mouth of the Columbia River, is a 

 small narrow-leaved tree of the wet sandy coast of the Pacific from Mendocino to Alaska, a dis- 

 tance of perhaps 1,500 miles. Its narrow leaves, persistent and long-closed very oblique cones, 

 which cover the tree so that sometimes scarcely any foliage remains visible, well characterize it. 



