

THE PINE SUB-FAMILY. 133 



bodies of timber, but is mostly of scattered growth, being 

 associated at its lowest range with .I'inus ponderosa and 

 Pimts contorta, and at its upper limits with Pinus aristata 

 and Abies Engelmanni" 



In Dr. Engelmann's account of this tree he gives the 

 following statistics in regard to its size: " P.flexilis, the 

 American representative of P. Cembra of the old world, 

 is a middle sized tree, usually 30 to 50 feet high, though 

 Fendler, a good authority, saw it near Santa Fe, GO to 80 

 feet high; Dr. Bigelow's trees, of the height of 100 to 130 

 feet, on the San Francisco Mountain, must belono- to some 



' 7 O 



other five-leaved species." 



The same author remarks : " In Colorado it is a fine 

 tree with tapering trunk and oval outline, branching al- 

 most from the base, lower branches horizontal, upper ones 

 ascending ; wood, white, hard, annual rings from ^ to ^- 

 line, on an average ^ line wide ; ti'ees become in 250 or 

 300 years about one foot thick." 



Dr. Parry states : " In general appearance it very closely 

 resembles our P. Strobus, from which it differs mainly in 

 its shorter and stouter entire leaves, more branching mode 

 of groAvth, as well as in the yellowish-brown cones, with 

 peculiar thickened ligneous scales." In Dr. James' account 

 of this species, he stated the cones were " erect ; " but 

 Dr. Parry states they " are inclined to be pendulous." 



We make the following extracts from Dr. Parry's de- 

 scription : " The seeds are nearly equal in size to those of 

 the Xew Mexican Nut Pine (P. edidis,) of an irregular, 

 oval form, 4 to 5 lines long, and possess similar edible 

 qualities. In addition to other peculiarities of this pine 

 may be noticed its slowness of growth ; thus, on a small 

 trunk of 7f inches in diameter there were 232 annual 

 rings. Its wood is soft, of fine texture, the heart-wood 

 incb'ning to a yellowish cast. The flexibility of its 

 branches, on which Dr. James founded its specitir name, 



