58 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



198. PINUS SABINIANA, DOUGL. 

 GRAY-LEAF PINE, DIGGER PINE, SABINE PINE. 



Ger., Graublattrige Flchte / Fr., Pin defeuilles gris ; Sp., Pino de 



hojas 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves in clusters of three each, 8-12 in. long, of a 

 pale blue-green color, with slender long callous tips, sharply serrulate, flexible, 

 pendent after the first season and furnished with many rows of stomata on each 

 face, with one to three parenchymatous resin ducts, sheathes at first about 1 in. 

 long, but finally not more than about half that ; branchlets large, pale glaucous 

 and distinctly marked with depressed lines giving the appearance of fish scales. 

 St animate floivers oblong cylindrical, about an inch in length, surrounded at base 

 by 10 to 15 involucral bracts, the outermost minute ; anthers yellow, bearing semi- 

 orbicular crests. Pistillate flowers are oblong-obovate about i in. long, with 

 purple glaucous scales borne on spreading peduncles from l|-2 in. long and 

 covered with ovate acute bracts. Cones oblong-ovoid from 4 to 8 in. long, 

 nearly as wide and weighing from 2 to 5 Ibs., reddish brown, with scales about an 

 inch wide and rounded at apex, the exposed portion conspicuously keeled trans- 

 versely and bearing each a prominent flattened thick spine, which above the 

 middle of the cone is erect or incurved, below the middle, reflexed ; seeds large, 

 about f in. long, oblong, somewhat compressed, with thick hard shell ridged 

 laterally and inclosed each by the thickened margin of its wing, which is broad 

 and rounded at apex and about one third of an inch longer than the seed ; kernel 

 oily and of slightly resinous flavor. 



(The specific naoie, Sabiniana, was given to this tree after Joseph Sabine an 

 English botanist ) 



The Gray -leaf Pine occasionally attains the height of SO ft. (24 m.), 

 with a trunk 3 or 4 ft. (1 m.) thick. The bark of trunk is of a red- 

 dish brown color and with very prominent ridges which exfoliate in 

 irregular brittle scales. 



It is remarkable as a Pine in that instead of forming a single 

 undivided trunk its trunk usually divides 15 or 20 ft. from the ground 

 into two or more secondary trunks, which in turn send out branches, 

 and all form a large, rather irregular top, with very open airy foliage. 

 Its slender drooping gray-green leaves, with conspicuous cones, are 

 clustered mainly near the extremities of the branchlets, and offer very 

 little resistance to the sun's rays; consequently, it casts a very meagre 

 shade. The whole aspect of the tree is very different from that of all 

 other Pines with which I am familiar. Prof. J. G. Lemmon aptly 

 likens the appearance of groves of these trees as observed from a dis- 

 tance to ' ' masses of fog on the plains or bands of clouds in the 

 mountain canons of California." 



HABITAT. California the sunbeaten western foothills of the 

 Sierra Nevadas and Coast ranges from near the northern boundary of 

 the state southward to the Sierra Libre Mountains, and ranging from 

 500 to 4,000 ft. in altitudinal distribution. 



