226 TREES 



of all the pine trees in the world." Trees two hundred feet 

 high, with trunk diameter of six to eight feet, are not un- 

 common. The maximum given by Sargent is twelve 

 feet across the stump. The head of a sugar pine is 

 rounded and broad, with pendulous branches, tufted with 

 stout, dark green leaves, three to four inches long. The 

 cones are the largest known, reaching eighteen inches in 

 length, rarely longer. The black or dark brown seeds are 

 one to five inches long, including the flat, blunt wings. 

 Indians, bears, and squirrels gather the abundant harvest 

 of these cones, which are rich in nutriment and pleasant 

 to the taste. Crystals of sugar form white masses like 

 rock candy, but with a taste of maple sugar, wherever a 

 break in the bark of a sugar pine permits the escape of the 

 sweet sap. This gives the tree its name. No other pine 

 has sap with such a noticeable sugar content. 



Fortunately, these gigantic soft pines belong to the 

 high Sierras and do not go down to the sea, where lumber- 

 men could sacrifice them without effort. Nature has 

 fenced them in by many barriers, and the government, by 

 reservation in national parks, insures the preservation 

 of some of the finest sugar pine groves, for the use and 

 inspiration of all the people. 



A visit to Yosemite is the experience of a lifetime to 

 any American. Here grow the most gigantic trees in the 

 world, and the sugar pines are nobler even than the giant 

 "big trees," for the latter are often decrepit, while the 

 sugar pines are hale and youthful by comparison. Leaving 

 behind the scrawny gray digger pines on the foothills, the 

 traveler enters the belt of the yellow pines, on the higher 

 elevations, and passing these he comes to the grand sugar 

 pines along the highest level of the stage road that leads 



