ON PINUS ARISTATA, ETC. 327 
itself frequently covered with young branches or shoots, which seem to keep life in the old trunk. Leaves crowded 
m the axils of ovate, acuminate, brittle, at first light brown scales, which, persisting longer than the leaves them- 
selves, cover the branches with their rough blackish remains ; leaves light green on both sides without white dots, 
mostly with numerous exsudations of white resin, usually easel upwards, entire on edges and keel, abruptly acutish, 
stouter in fruit-bearing, more slender in such trees as produce principally male flowers, in very robust specimens 1} 
and rarely even 14, usually about 1 inch long ; on sterile branches straight and horizontal, “ giving the branches the 
appearance of so many bottle brushes.”” The vagine consist of 7-8 oblong scales with fringed margins, adpressed and 
forming a sheath 3-4 lines long on the young leaf, soon spreading and squarrose, falling off in the second or third year. 
Many lanceolate acuminate scales, perule, sheathe the lower part of the young shoots; shorter and broader bracts, 
bearing in their axils the male aments, follow next. The aments together form a very short spike, or rather head, 6 or 
8 lines long ; often these heads persist on the axis for 2 or even 3 years with a few bunches of leaves above each one, 
giving the appearance of a leafy spike 1 or 1} inches long! Our figure does not represent this condition distinctly, 
but it shows the numerous naked spaces, about 10 in number, which in former years male 
flowers. I have seen branches with 16 such naked spaces, proving that leaves were persistent for 16 years, —a fact un- 
heard of among pines, where leaves are said to endure generally only 3 years. The stipitate oval ament 3-4 lines long, 
has a proper involucrum of 4 oblong scales or bracts of equal length. It seems that the involucrum of the male ament 
and the form of the ament and of the anthers, together with the fruit and seed, offer characters of importance for the 
distinction and arrangement of species, hitherto neglected probably because living nature has not been studied as dili- 
gently as the dried mummies of the herbaria, and these contain so few good flowering specimens of Pines ; the 
number of leaves, so much relied on, is of secondary consideration, and is often calculated to mislead, gene [207] 
the most natural affinities, such as our Cembroid Nut-pines with 1-5 leaves, or the Pineoid Pines (P. Pinea, 
Sabiniana, P. Torreyana) with 2-5 leaves. P. sylvestris has an oval ament 3 lines long, with an involucrum of 3 spatu- 
late tench in the ail oe a Becrgass recurved bract, which is deciduous before the ament ; anther with a short, nearly 
entire crista. P. Austriaca has a cylindric curved ament 1} inches long, with an involienin of about 10 very unequal 
and sory distichous ya scales, in the axil of a linear-lanceolate recurved persistent bract ; anther, with a semicircu- 
lar entire crista, large enough to entirely hide the body of the anther in the yet closed ament, and give the latter the 
appearance of a young cone. — Crista of the anther scarcely indicated by a knob, smaller than in any pine examined 
by me. Female aments single or 2 together, near the end of the young shoot, bristling with the lanceolate, aristate, 
erect scales, of purple-black color. Cones oval, obtuse, 2}-23 inches long, about half as much in diameter, often cov- 
ered with resin as if varnished ; their purplish-brown or blackish color is found also in a little group of alpine pines of 
the Popocatepetl with 3-5 leaves, discovered by Roezl. Bracts, as in all pines, not obliterated (“evanide ”), as is 
usually stated, but much altered, and rather indistinct ; more or less thickened, and partly connate with the base of 
the scale ; in our species, only the upper obtuse mucronate part membranaceous and free ; scales 10-15 lines long and 
4-6 lines wide at their exposed part ; transverse ridge of the atte rather flat, protuberance of the scale very conspicu- 
ous ; the slender mucro or awn, from the small rhombic central knob, 2-3 lines long, curved upwards, at last tortuous 
and easily broken off, has suggested the name for the species. Seed nearly 3 lines long, with the obovate wing 6-7 
lines long ; embryo in all the seeds examined by me with 7 short cotyledons, 
Systematically, this species belongs to Endlicher’s section Pseudostrobus, which comprises many Mexican, some 
Central American, and a single West Indian species ; it is its only representative in the territory of the United States. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES [Repropvucep on pp. 328-9]. 
Pl. 5. Branches gathered about July 1st ; the upper one with stouter leaves and half grown cones, about a year old, the 
young shoot of the present year just pushing out, showing the scales variously broken, and in their axils the tips of the young 
eaves. 
The lower branch, with more slender leaves, bears male flowers, 
Pl. 6, Fig. 1, 2. Ripe cones —a smaller one closed and a larger one with open scales ; @, }, ¢, single scales from the 
side and upper surface, and seeds ; these are incomplete, the only ones — seen by me ; better ones are figured Pl. 11, Fig. 7 
—a, external or upper ; 2, internal or lower side, Fig. 8, embryo 10 times magn. 
Fig. 3, 4. sae: of leaves, 2 magn. Fig. 3, young ones with oes bract ; Fig. 4, full grown ones with the [208] 
sheathing scales recurv 
Fig. 5. Upper sak of leaf of the fruit-bearing branch, 10 magn. ; upper or inner side (section at base not correctly 
wn). 
ot 6, 7, 8. Sections of leaves dry and the same soaked, 10 magn. ; f, 6, section of Fig. 2; f. 7, of another leaf; f. 8, 
of a leaf of the male branch. 
Fig. 9. Bunch of male aments — their perule and bracts ; the obtuse involneral bracts visible between the others ; 
2 magn. a. An anther from above, 10 magn. ; depauperate crista visible at the end of the commissure. b. Pollen, 100 
magn. 
