52 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



summer-cells thin ; of a delicate pinkish-brown color with yellowish- 

 white sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 0.3684; Percentage of Ash, 0.22 ; 

 Relative Approximate Fuel Value, 0.3676 ; Coefficient of Elasticity, 

 79375 ; Modulus of Rupture, 597 ; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure^ 

 336; Resistance to Indentation, 78 ; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 

 22.96. 



USES. This timber is applied to quite the same uses as the White 

 Pine of the east, and is the most highly valued of the woods of California 

 for doors, sash, blinds, etc., and is applied to many other uses. The 

 sugary exudation is sometimes used as a substitute for sugar, and the 

 seeds as an article of food. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES. The sugary exudation is actively purgative, 

 and is used to some extent in domestic practice.* 



147- PINUS PONDEROSA, DOITGL. 

 CALIFORNIA YELLOW PINE, BULL PINE. 



Ger., Calif or nianische Gelbe Fichte ; Fr., Pinjaune de Calif or n ie ; Sp., 



Pino amarillo. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. Leaves in threes, very stout, mostly 7-10 in. long, with 

 ragged sheaths at first to f in. long (finally about 4 in.), springing from the axils of 

 linear fimbriated bracts with thick persistent bases and densely crowded at the ends 

 of the thick rough branchlets. Staminate aments cylindrical, fleuxuous 1| 2 in. 

 long, densely crowded into a short head, involucre of 10-12 bracts ; anthers with a 

 large semi-circular scarcely dentate crest. Cones subterminal, often several (2-5 or 7) 

 together in a whorl, 3-5 in. long, sessile or nearly so, of a rich brown color, narrow 

 ovoid when closed (ovoid when open), somewhat cirved, spreading or reflexed upon 

 the branchlet, scales thickenad at the apex and with umbo high and stout, straight 

 prickle; seeds dark-brown ^ in. long, with straight wing about 1 in. or slightly less 

 in length and widest above the middle ; cotyledons 6-9. The cones at maturity 

 break away from the branch by a fracture within the base of the cone, leaving some 

 of the basal scales attached to the branch. 



Var. scopuloram is a smaller and more spire-shaped form of tree found among the 

 Rocky Mountains to the eastward, with leaves and cones somewhat smaller than 

 in the type form. 



(The specific name, ponderosa, is the Latin for heavy.) 



Another giant representative of its genus, being but little inferior to 

 the Sugar Pine in stature, the largest individuals attaining 300 ft. in 

 height, and 15 ft. (4.50m.) in diameter of trunk. Trees of those di- 

 mensions are rare, but individuals of upwards of half the dimensions 

 noted are by no means uncommon. Its branches are long and hori- 

 zontal, or drooping and forming a flat-pyramidal or rounded summit. The 

 bark of trunk is characteristic, being thick, of a yellowish-brown color, 

 and checked into large, irregular, flat and smooth plates 8 or 10 in. wide 

 on large trunks. 



* U. S. Dispensatory, 16th ed., p. 955. 



