243. PlNUS FLEXILIS LlMBER PlNE. 43 



the desert ranges of New Mexico and Arizona south of the Colorado 

 plateau, the lower slopes of mountains of northern Arizona and south- 

 ward into Mexico It inhabits dry arid slopes at elevations of from 

 four to six thousand feet within the United States, but attaining its 

 best development in the moist soil of the canon bottoms to which its 

 sturdy checkered trunks and gray-green foliage impart a peculiar 

 aspect. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood light, soft, brittle, not strong, of 

 very fine grain and susceptible of a very smooth and beautiful polish. 

 It is of an orange-brown color with lighter sap-wood. Specific 

 Gravity, 0.5829; Percentage of Ash , 0.11; Relative Approximate 

 Fuel Value, 0.5823; Coefficient of Elasticity, 61275; Modulus of 

 Rupture, 761; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 36.32. 



USES. The wood of this species, though possessed of useful prop- 

 erties, is practically unknown in commerce. The fruit is an article of 

 food with the Indians of the regions in which it grows. 



GENUS PINUS, TOURNEFORT. 



Leaves evergreen, needle-shaped, from slender buds, in clusters of 2-5 together, 

 each cluster invested at its base with a sheath of thin, membranous scales. Flowers 

 appearing in spring, monoecious. Sterile flowers in catkins, clustered at the base 

 of the shoots of the season; stamens numerous with very short filaments and a 

 scale-like connective; anther cells, 2, opening lengthwise; pollen grains triple. 

 Fertile flowers in conical or cylindrical spikes cones consisting of imbricated, 

 carpellary scales, each in the axil of a persistent bract and bearing at its base 

 within a pair of inverted ovules. Fruit maturing in the autumn of the second 

 year, a cone formed of the imbricated carpellary scales, which are woody, often 

 thickened or awned at the apex, persistent, when ripe dry and spreading each to 

 liberate two nut-like and usually winged seeds; cotyledons 3-12, linear. 



(Finns is a Latin word from Celtic pin or pen, a crag.) 



243. PINUS FLEXILIS, JAMES. 



LIMBER PINE, ROCKY MOUNTAIN WHITE PINE. 



Ger., Biegsame Fichte ; Fr., Pin souple ; Sp., Pino flexible. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves in clusters of 5 each, from -3 in., usually 

 about 2 in., long, with investing sheath of scales very early decidous, rigid, 

 sharp pointed, entire or nearly so, containing a single fibre-vascular bundle and 

 two dorsal resin ducts; branchlets smooth, slightly pubescent at first, soon becom- 

 ing of a silvery gray color, flexible and tough. Flowers open in June and July, 

 the staminate oval, about \ in. long, surrounded by 8 or 9 involucral scales and 

 with reddish anthers tipped with short crests; the pistillate flowers generally in 

 clusters close to the ends of the branchlets, about in. long, reddish purple, and 

 with short thick peduncles covered with persistent bracts. Cones oval or sub- 

 cylindrical, subsessile or with short peduncles, horizontal or slightly declined, 

 3-5 in. long (except in the variety macrocarpa, Engelm., where they are some- 

 times 10 in. long), light green until mature, with scales thickened toward the 

 apex, those of the lowermost scales strongly reflexed and terminating in a dark 

 rounded umbo. In early autumn the seeds are liberated and the exposed portion 

 of the scales turn to a light brown, the rest dark chocolate; seeds oval, com- 

 pressed, \ in. or less in length, their inconspicuous wings being scarcely in. wide 

 and remaining attached to the scales when the seed falls away; cotyledons 6-9. 



The specific name, flexilis, is the Latin for pliable, and refers to the pliable 

 nature of the branchlets. 



