230 TREES 



is found near the limit of tree growth, from the outer 

 ranges of the mountains of Colorado to those of southern 

 Utah, Nevada, northern Arizona and southeastern Cali- 

 fornil In Eastern paries it is occasionally seen as a 

 shrubby pine with unusually interesting, artistic cones. 



THE NUT PINES 



The nut pines, four in number, supply Indians and 

 Mexicans of the Southwest with a store of food in the 

 autumn, for the seeds are large and rich m oils and 

 they have keeping qualities that permit their hoardmg 

 for winter. The four-leaved P. quadrifoha., Suaw., 

 scattered over the mountains of southern and Lower 

 California, has four leaves in a cluster, as a rule. A desert 

 tree, its foliage is pale gray-green, harmonizing with the 

 arid mesas and low mountain slopes, where it is found. 

 The cones are small with few scales, but the nut is five- 

 eighths of an inch long and very rich. _ 



P cembroides, Zucc, with two to three leaves, is the 

 "pinon," that covers the upper slopes of Arizona moun- 

 tains with open forests fifteen to twenty feet high. Ihe 

 leaves are one to two inches long, dark green with pale 

 lines, the branchlets orange-colored and matted with 

 hairs. The large nuts are very oily, and so abundant m 

 the mountains of northern Mexico that they are sold m 

 large quantities in every town. 



The pinon (P. edulis, Engelm.) ranges from the eastern 

 foothills of the Colorado Rockies to western Texas and 

 westward to the eastern borders of Utah, southwestern 

 Wyoming, central Arizona and on into Mexico, often 

 forming extensive open forests, and reaching an elevation 



