The Pines 



Though driven to the wall, as it were, this pine seems dis- 

 posed to make the most of its chances. Seedlings are numerous 

 and vigorous among the elder trunks, and as there is little 

 demand for its wood, the species is likely to hold its own. 



The Yellow Pine {P. /lrt{ouica, Engelm.) is the Southern 

 counterpart of its close relative, P. ponderosa. They are both 

 lumber trees of importance in the Rocky Mountain regions. The 

 Arizona yellow pine is often inaccessible, as it grows on steep 

 declivities and in deep canons from which the logs cannot be 

 taken, even after the trees are felled. This tree is one of the 5- 

 leaved pitch pines, with leaves 5 to 7 inches long, and small 

 spiny cones. The bulk of the forests of this tree grow across 

 the Mexican border, at elevations 6,000 to 8,000 feet above the 

 sea. 



The Digger Pine {P. Sabimana, Dougl.), growing only on 

 the sun-baked foothills of western California, deserves mention 

 here on account of its peculiar sparse foliage, pale, bluish green, 

 and 8 to 12 inches long, that in no wise conceals the angular 

 limbs, and the great cones, 6 to 10 inches long, which fairly load 

 the tree, and are carried for several years. The thickened scales 

 protrude separately as two-edged, thick projections that end in a 

 beak shaped like a shark's tooth. 



The Digger Indians once gathered the seeds of this pine for 

 food. The nuts are as big as lima beans, and rich in oils and 

 other food elements. 



Loblolly, or Old-Field Pine (P. Tcvda, Linn.)— A tall, 

 straight, deep-rooted tree, 80 to 100 feet high, with short, much- 

 branched horizontal limbs. Bark bright red-brown, broadly 

 ridged, scaly; branchlets smooth, yellow-brown, thickly set with 

 the recurved inner scales ot the branch buds. Wood resinous, 

 weak, coarse grained, pale brown. Buds obovate-oblong, with 

 pointed brown scales. Leaves in threes, slender, stiff, twisted, 

 pale green, glaucous, 6 to 10 inches long; sheaths close, thin, 

 persistent. Flowers: staminate, crowded on short spikes, in- 

 curved, cylindrical, in scaly involucres; pistillate, lateral, one to 

 three in a cluster, below apex of new shoot, with yellow scales, 

 oval on short, scaly stalks, April. Fruits ovate-oblong, 3 to 5 

 inches long, i^ to 2 inches broad; ridged, purplish knobs, with 

 prickles on scales; seeds, rhomboidal, with wing f inch long. 

 Preferred habitat, swampy lands near tidewater; low ground, 



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