24 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



ter, divided generally 15-20 above the ground into 3 or 4 thick secondary stems, 

 clothed with short crooked branches pendant below and ascending toward the sum- 

 mit of the tree, and forming an open round-topped head remarkable for the sparse- 

 ness of its foliage, and stout pale glaucous branchlets, becoming dark brown or 

 nearly black during their second season. Bark of the trunk l'-2' thick, dark 

 brown slightly tinged with red or nearly black and deeply and irregularly divided 

 into thick connected ridges covered with small closely appressed scales. Wood 

 light, soft, not strong, close-grained, brittle, light brown or red, with thick nearly 

 white sapwood. Abietine, a nearly colorless aromatic liquid with an odor of oil of 

 oranges, is obtained by distilling the resinous juices. The large sweet slightly resin- 

 ous seeds formed an important article of food for the Indians of California. 



Distribution. Scattered singly or in small groups over the dry foothills of western 

 California, ranging from 500 up to 4000 above the sea-level and from the southern 

 slopes of the northern cross range to the Tehachapi Mountains and the Sierra de la 

 Liebre ; most abundant and attaining its largest size on the eastern foothills of the 

 Sierra Nevada near the centre of the state at elevations of about 2000; here often 

 the most conspicuous feature of the vegetation. 



24. Pinus Coulteri, D. Don. Pitch Pine. 



Leaves tufted at the ends of the branches, stout, rigid, dark blue-green, marked 

 by numerous bauds of stomata on the 3 faces, 6'-12' long, deciduous during their 

 third and fourth seasons. Flowers: staminate yellow; pistillate dark reddish brown. 



Fruit oval, acute, short-stalked and pendant, 10'-14' long, becoming light yellow- 

 brown, with thick broad scales terminating in flattened elongated knobs straight or 

 curved backward and armed with flattened more or less incurved spines ^'-H' long, 

 gradually opening in the autumn and often persistent on the branches for several 

 years ; seeds oval, compressed, \' long, \'-\' wide, dark chestnut-brown, with a thick 

 shell, inclosed by their wings broadest above the middle, oblique at the apex, nearly 

 1' longer than the seeds, about |' wide. 



A tree, 50-70 high, with a trunk sometimes 4 in diameter, thick branches covered 

 with dark scaly bark, long and mostly pendulous below, short and ascending above, 



