170 THE PINES 



ignated Western Yellow Pine, and this appellation should 

 prevail, that it may be distinguished from the Yellow Pines 

 of the Middle and Southern States. Its botanical designa- 

 tion, Pinus ponderosa, is eminently fitting, for it is truly 

 a ponderous Pine, and is overmatched by only one other of 

 the Pine family, the great Sugar Pine. While it is botan- 

 ically classed among the Hard Pines, the lumber cut from 

 it stands intermediate in character between that from the 

 Hard Pines of the Southern States and the White Pines 

 already described; and, therefore, there is ample reason 

 for bestowing such a name as will convey to the dealer and 

 consumer a truthful idea of its character. It should never 

 be palmed off as a soft or White Pine, nor for a hard, re- 

 sinous Southern Yellow Pine. It has enough good qual- 

 ities to enable it to stand as a class by itself. 



It has a wide range in the United States, extending from 

 the Canadian line southward to Lower California and from 

 the Great Plains westward to the Pacific Ocean. East of 

 the Rocky Mountains it takes on a somewhat modified 

 form and is botanically known as Pinus ponderosa scop- 

 itlorum; and on the mountains from southern Oregon to 

 Lower California there is another near relative known as 

 Jeffrey Pine (Pinus Jeffrey i). These two so closely re- 

 semble the Western Yellow Pine, in character and habit 

 of growth, and in quality of lumber cut from each, that they 

 will here be considered as practically identical. 1 



It is not alone a giant among the Pines, but also among 

 nearly all other trees. It is known to have reached a height 

 of two hundred feet, with a diameter of eight feet, and it 

 is claimed that trees two hundred and fifty feet high and 

 twelve feet in diameter have been seen, but such must be 

 very rare. That it may reach a great size is certain, for, in 



1 " Jeffrey Pine is scarcely less magnificent in size than its associate, the 

 Western Yellow Pine. Some specialists consider it a variety of Pinutponde- 

 rosa, which it resembles so closely in its habits and soil and climatic require- 

 ments that from the forester's point of view there appears to he no pract- 

 ical reason for distinguishing the two." George B. Sndworth, in " Foregt 

 Trees of the Pacific Slope," page 47, United States Forest Service, 1908. 



