and with a mass of 360 live, body limbs, many 

 of them 20 feet long, drooping and sweep- 

 ing the ground. 



Three other sub-Alpine pines, more or less 

 abundant on the mountains of the interior 

 Great Basin, reach the eastern slope of the 

 Sierra sparsely near the southern end. They 

 all have short leaves in fascicles of five each, 

 and pendant, oblong cones three to four inches 

 long. 



One is the Limber Pine (P. flexilis), with 

 slender branchlets, smooth cones, with large, 

 nearly round, wingless seeds ; found at a few 

 stations, notably a few trees in Bloody Canyon 

 of Mono Pass, east of Yosemite Valley; also 

 a few trees were discovered only last season 

 by a forest ranger on the north (desert) slope 

 of Mount San Bernardino. 



A second species, the Bristle-cone Pine (P. 

 aristata), with black bristles half an inch long 

 terminating the cone scales, is sparsely in- 

 habiting several slopes; and the third species, 

 the Fox-tail Pine (P. Balfouriana), with long, 

 plumelike limbs, and softer, nearly smooth 

 cones, forms a few high groves near Mt. Whit- 

 ney; while, very strangely, a few lonely trees 

 fringe the high forest on Mt. Eddy, near 

 Mt. Shasta, 400 miles from its relatives. 



THE BRAVE LITTLE ALPINER 



Lastly, above them all, on the verge of the 

 timber line, the upper fringe of the immense 

 forest robe of King Sierra, are found the 

 few living specimens of a truly Alpine tree, 

 the White-stem Pine (P. albicaulis). De- 

 pressed to firm platforms flooring the high, 

 narrow, wind-swept passes, or leaning crip- 

 pled and stunted against the storm-splintered 

 buttresses (or even standing out defiantly, 

 alone), all with bodies short and thick, their 



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