branches maintaining sturdy, milk-white 

 branchlets, proudly erect, and bearing aloft 

 their condensed fascicles of shortened, thick- 

 ened leaves, half concealing the abbreviated, 

 hardened cones, they strongly appeal to sensi- 

 tive souls for sympathy. 



It is interesting to note in this connection 

 that of all the forest trees, of whatever class 

 or family, on the face of the earth; of all the 

 cone-bearing trees so bountifully bestowed 

 upon California, it is the pine that is en- 

 dowed with a constitution sufficiently hardy 

 and with organs sufficiently pliable to meet 

 alike the rigorous requirements of existence 

 upon the bleak, inhospitable shores of Alaska 

 and the similarly storm-beaten, but two-miles 

 higher peaks of the Sierra. 



Imprisoned in ice and snow for the greater 

 part of the year, the White-stem Pine only has 

 time to breathe, when, for a few weeks, the 

 midsummer sun melts the snow banks, re- 

 vealing the icicle-decorated heroes uplifting 

 their white-staffed scepters, bright with royal 

 purple gems, as who should say : "We are the 

 strongest trees on earth, the highest expres- 

 sion of arboreal existence, the crown of the 

 world's forests ! Leaving relatives behind eons . 

 ago, through ages of strenuous endeavor, and 

 despite the rigid repression of the elements, 

 we have battled for this exalted throne. We 

 alone above the worthy and titled individuals 

 of the celebrated forests below are privileged 

 to stand before kings ; the %eaven-piercing 

 pinnacles of the High Sierra only, are loftier 

 than we." 



(42) 



