THE PIXE SUB-FAMILY. 113 



It forms a small tree, probably not exceeding twenty 

 feet in height, but well furnished Avith side branches and 

 with a peculiar, glaucous, bluish-green foliage, which pro- 

 duces a beautiful effect. The seeds, like many others of 

 our western species of pines, are edible and very nutri- 

 tious, with shells so thin that they may readily be broken 

 with the fingers. They constitute a large part of the sub- 

 sistence of the Indians that inhabit those regions, and are 

 gathered by them and stored away for winter use. 



Dr. Engelmami says of this plant in a recent article, 

 that " it has single leaves, and not connate, as Endlicher 

 would have it." This is one of those perplexing misun- 

 derstandings that will occasionally happen among authors. 

 Our own specimen was grown by the late John Evans, a 

 botanist of no ordinary talent, who procured the seed, if 

 we mistake not, from its native locality. However, it re- 

 tains all of the specific distinctions as described by End- 

 licher, having three leaves in a sheath and being only very 

 rarely monophyllous on the young shoots. This mono- 

 phyllous state is not unfrequently met with in other spe- 

 cies, and its frequent occurrence in this particular one is 

 doubtless the cause of the misunderstanding. 



The P. Fremont iana is one of the very slow growing 

 species that require a number of years to arrive at maturi- 

 ty, and consequently may not, on this account, prove so 

 popular as some others. 



This edible, or nut-pine section, is of so much interest, 

 that we make the following extract from Dr. Engelmann's 

 article. " This very natural little group is characterized by 

 the small, almost globose cones, the scales bearing large py- 

 ramidal apophyses and large edible seed*,the wings of which 

 remain attached to the scale, which, I suspect, is the case in 

 all 'wingless' 1 seeds of pines; in P. Pinea, however, the 

 wine is very distinct, and detaches itself clearly from the 



O *< 



scale, and at the same time also from the seed itself, which is 

 likewise the case in the closely allied, though 5-lcaved Cal- 



