Parry's Nut Pine 



15 



The wood is soft, close-grained, and yellow; its specific gravity is about 0.65. 



Its seeds are used by the inhabitants of northern Mexico as food, either raw 

 or roasted, the demand being sufficient to make their collection of commercial im- 

 portance. 



8. PARRY'S NUT PINE Pinus quadrifolia Parlatore 



This, the rarest of our nut pines, enters our area in southern California, from 

 Lower CaHfornia, where, in the mountains, it is very abundant. Its maximum 

 height is 12 meters, with a trunk diameter of 4.5 dm. It is also known as Parr}''s 

 piiion. Nut pine, Parry's pine, and Mexican pinon. 



The branches are stout and spreading, forming a dense, regular cone, the 

 lower branches frequently touch- 

 ing the ground ; very old trees are 

 more rounded and often irregular. 

 The bark is about 16 mm. thick, 

 shallowly fissured into flat ridges 

 with few close scales or none on 

 the dark reddish brown surface. 

 The twigs are stout, short and 

 softly hairy, soon becoming hght 

 reddish brown. The leaves are 

 in fascicles of 4, sometimes 3 

 to 5, the sheaths soon falhng 

 away; they are pale glaucous 

 green, stout, 3.5 to 4.5 cm. long, 

 often 3 mm. wide, the dorsal faces 

 usually the broadest, the tips 

 thickened and short-pointed, en- 

 tire-margined, marked on the lower surface by 4 to 10 conspicuous rows of 

 stomata and contain 2 large dorsal resin-ducts and a single fibrovascular bun- 

 dle ; they are somewhat scattered on the twigs and persist more or less irregularly 

 for three or four years. The staminate flowers are in spike-like clusters near the 

 ends of the twigs; they are oval, about 5 mm. long; the involucre consists of four 

 conspicuous, irregularly fringed bracts. The pistillate flowers are nearly terminal, 

 usually soHtary or few-clustered, almost sessile, subglobose, about 5 mm. long, 

 their scales broadly ovate, rounded and tipped with a short, broad point. The 

 cones, when mature, are subglobose, 4 to 6 cm. long, brown and shining; the 

 apex of the concave scales is thickened, rounded, keeled and provided with a 

 ridged knob which is flattened or sunken in the middle and without any spine or 

 bristle. The unexposed portion of the scales is red and dull; only a few of the 

 central scales bear seeds, the others are sterile and smaller, those at the base 

 remaining closed and much reflexed, forming a rather flat base to the cone. The 

 seed is ovoid, 1.5 cm. long, narrowed and compressed at the apex, full and rounded 



Fig. 9. Parry's Nut Pine. 



