124 Forests and Trees 



YELLOW PINES 



Trees with hard resinous wood and leaves in fascicles of two or 

 three. 



5. BULL PINE OR WESTERN YELLOW PINE. Pinus ponderosa. 

 Lawson. 



The yellow pines closely resemble the red pines in their 

 hard resinous wood. They are sometimes classed with the 

 latter, the whole group being called pitch pines. In Canada they 

 are represented by this single species. 



It is a large tree, often more than two hundred feet high, 

 with shcrt stout branches, much forked and sometimes drooping. 

 The young growth is strongly aromatic. 



The leaves, in fascicles of two or three, 

 are from three to eleven inches long and 

 tufted on the ends of the branches. They 

 fall about the end of the third year. The 

 bark is thick and deeply furrowed. On the 

 older trunks the scales are large and red- 

 dish-brown, but on young trees they are 

 smaller and almost black. The cones are 

 nearly four inches long, and sessile, grow- 



^ v .. ing horizontally from the stem in clusters 



FIG. 3. Yellow Pine. 6 * 



of three to five. They mature about the 

 middle of the second summer and fall early, usually leaving 

 some of the scales attached to the stem. The wood is light 

 red, hard and resinous, but brittle. It is durable when not in 

 contact with the soil or exposed to moisture, and is extensively 

 used for various kinds of construction purposes. 



This is a tree of the drier region of southern and central 

 British Columbia, extending northward on the plateaus between 

 the mountain chains to the south end of the Upper Arrow Lake 

 on the east side of the Selkirk Mountains, and for some miles 

 north of Ashcroft to the west of that range. 



