THE PINES 239 



a crouching, sprawling tree, its twigs covered with scant 

 short clingy leaves in twos, averaging an inch in length. 

 The wood is a great boon to the regions this tree inhabits. 

 It is light, soft, weak, and close-grained; used for posts, rail- 

 road ties, building material and fuel. Its seeds germinate 

 better from cones that have been scorched by fire. 



The Digger Pine 



P. Sabiniana, Dougl. 



The digger pine is a western California tree of the semi- 

 arid foothill country. Gray-green, sparse foliage on the 

 gnarled branches gives the tree a forlorn starved look, 

 as it stands or crouches, singly or in scattered groups, 

 along the gravelly sun-baked slopes. The great cones, 

 six to ten inches long, fairly loading the branches, express 

 most emphatically the vigor of the tree. The thickened 

 scales protrude at a wide angle from the central core, and 

 each bears a strong beak, triangular, flattened like a 

 shark's tooth, but curved. The rich oily nuts, as big as 

 lima beans, furnish a nourishing food to the Indians. 

 The Digger tribe harvested these nuts, and the pioneer 

 gave the tree the tribal name. 



The Western Pitch Pine 



P. Coulteri, D. Don. 



The Western pitch pine, most abundant in the San 

 Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains, at elevations 

 of about a mile above the sea, has cones not imlike those 

 of the digger pine, in the armament of their scales. 

 These are notable by being the heaviest fruits borne by 



