FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



51 



wonderful reproductive power of this species on areas over which its stand lias 

 been killed by fire is dependent upon the ability of the closed cones to endure 

 a fire which kills the tree without injuring its seed. After tiro, the rones 

 open and shed their seeds on the bared ground and a new growth springs up. 

 Another remarkable adaptation insuring this tree against extinction by lire is 

 its habit of producing fertile cones at the early age of from 7 to 10 years. 



When the cones are fully ripe the scale tips are shiny and a clay-brown color, 

 their inner portion being a bright purple-brown. The seeds (fig. 15, u 1 ate deep 

 reddish brown, with black-brown spots. Seed leaves, commonly •".. but some- 

 times 4. Wood varies in grain; tine in dense stands, moderately coarse in the 

 open; commercially Important Wood of the Pacific tree is a pale reddish 



Fig. 1G.—Pinua vontorta. 



brown, while the eastern wood is yellow or yellowish-brown. Both are bard. 

 The eastern wood is lighter, less resinous, and straighter-grained. 



Longevity. — Attains an age of from 100 to 175 years; but doubtless il is 

 capable of reaching from 200 to possibly 300 years, if exempt from tire, to 

 which, throughout its range, it quickly succumbs on account of its thin bark. 

 .Many stands have in the past attained an age of only 00 years before being 

 killed by forest fires. 



RANGE. 



From Alaskan coast and interior Yukon territory southward to northern Lower I'.ali 

 fornia and through the Rocky Mountains to the Black Hills (South Dakota) and thr< 

 western Colorado. The so-called typical Pinus contorta (exclusive of Finns contorta var. 



