12 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



among Indians and Mexicans, and are sold in the markets of Colorado and New 

 Mexico. 



Distribution. Eastern foothills of the outer ranges of the Rocky Mountains, from 

 Colorado to western Texas, westward to the eastern borders of Utah, southwestern 

 Wyoming, northern and central Arizona, and over the mountains of northern Mexico; 

 often forming extensive open forests at the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, 

 on the Colorado plateau, and on many mountain ranges of northern and central Ari- 

 zona up to elevations of 7000 above the sea. 



12. Pinus monophylla, Torr. Nut Pine. Pifion. 



Leaves in 1 or 2-leaved clusters, rigid, incurved, pale glaucous green, marked 

 by 18-20 rows of stomata, usually about 1^' long, sometimes deciduous during 



their fourth and fifth seasons, but 

 frequently persistent until their 

 twelfth year. Flowers: staminate 

 dark red ; pistillate short-stalked. 

 Fruit short-oblong, 1^-2^' long; 

 seeds oblong, full and rounded at 

 the base, acute at the apex, dark 

 red-brown and rounded on the lower 

 side, slightly compressed and pale 

 yellow-brown on the upper side, 

 about I' long and ^' broad, with a 

 thin brittle shell, their wings light 

 brown, ^' to ' wide. 



A tree, usually 15-20, occa- 

 sionally 40-50 high, with a short 

 trunk rarely more than a foot in 

 diameter and often divided near the ground into several spreading stems, short thick 

 branches forming while the tree is young a broad rather compact pyramid, and in 

 old age often pendulous and forming a low round-topped often picturesque head, 

 and stout light orange-colored ultimately dark brown branchlets. Bark of the trunk 

 about f thick and divided by deep irregular fissures into narrow connected flat 

 ridges broken on the surface into thin closely appressed light or dark brown scales 

 tinged with red or orange color. Wood light, soft, weak, and brittle; largely used 

 for fuel, and charcoal used in smelting. The seeds supply an important article of 

 food to the Indians of Nevada and California. 



Distribution. Dry gravelly slopes and mesas from the western base of the Wasatch 

 Mountains of Utah, westward over the mountain ranges of Nevada to the eastern 

 slopes of the southern Sierra Nevada, and to their western slope at the head-waters 

 of King's River, and southward to northern Arizona and to the mountains of southern 

 and Lower California; often forming extensive open forests at elevations between 

 5000 and 7000. 



p 



' l( 5 12 



PITCH PINES. 



Wood usually heavy, coarse-grained, generally dark-colored, with pale often thick sap- 

 wood ; cones green at maturity (sometimes purple in 15 and ,?7) becoming various shades 

 of brown ; cone-scales more or less thickened, mostly armed ; seeds shorter th?^n their 

 wing-s (fxcqrt in 23 and 34} ; leaves with 2 fibro-vascular bundles. 



