FORESTS OF MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK. 



27 



This tree seeds every year. In good seed years the upper branches 

 are laden with a profusion of beautiful, deep-purple cones, often 

 in such abundance as to bend down the branchlets with their weight. 

 The reproduction is slow. In the high mountains the trees are 

 buried in snow from October to late in June, and the growing season 

 is very short. 



WHITE-BARK PINE (PINUS ALBICAHLIS ) . 



The white-bark pine (fig. 21) grows close to timber line in the 

 mountains of the Pacific coast from British Columbia to southern 



FIG. 20. A gnarled, wind-swept mountain hemlock (Tsuga mcrtcnsiana), near 



the upper limits of tree growth, Spray Park. Mount Rainier National Park. 



Photograph hy A. II. Denman. 



California. In the Canadian Rockies it extends north to the fifty- 

 third parallel. It is the most alpine of all the pines. Its lower limit 

 on Mount Rainier is about 5,000 feet above sea level. In sheltered 

 places where the soil is deep the trees are sometimes 30 to 40 feet 

 high and 20 inches in diameter. The trunks are free from limbs for 

 8 or 10 feet. The outer bark, from which the tree derives its name, 

 consists of thin, light-gray scales. 



As the white-bark pine advances up the mountain its habit changes 

 rapidly. The stem shortens and becomes gnarled and twisted. The 

 tough, flexible branches reach the ground and spread over it to a 



