240 TREES 



any pine tree. Occasionally they exceed fifteen inches in 

 length and weigh eight pounds. The seeds are one-half 

 an inch in length, not counting the thin wing, which is 

 often an inch long. 



The leaves of this "big-cone" pine match the cones. 

 They are stout, stiff, dark blue-green, six to sixteen inches 

 long, three in a bundle, which has a sheath an inch or more 

 in length. Crowded on the ends of the branches, these 

 leaves would entitle this tree to qualify as a "fox-tail" 

 pine, except for the fact that the foliage persists into the 

 third and fourth year, which clothes the branches far 

 back toward the trunk and gives the tree a luxuriant 

 crown. The dry slopes and ridges of the Coast Ranges of 

 California are beautified by small groves and scattered 

 specimens of this striking and picturesque pine, so unlike 

 its neighbors. Its wood is used only for fuel. In Euro- 

 pean countries this is a popular ornamental pine, planted 

 chiefly for its great golden-brown cones. 



The Knob-cone Pine 



P. attenuata, Lemm. 



The knob-cone pine inhabits the Coast Ranges from the 

 San Bernardino Mountains northward on the western 

 slopes of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Mountains, 

 into southwestern Oregon, where it forms pure forests 

 over large areas, its altitude limit being four thousand 

 feet. It is a tall slim tree of the hot dry fire-swept foot- 

 hills, and it comes again with absolute certainty after 

 forest fires. The clustered cones, three to six inches long, 

 are amazingly hard and do not open at maturity, but wait 

 for the death of the tree. Leaves three to seven inches 



