CONIFER OF DR. PARRY’S COLLECTION. 333 
cylindric cones with thickened entire margin of the scales) seems to extend from Canada to the northern Rocky Moun- 
tains, where it has been gathered by Bourgeau ; but it has not fallen under Dr. Parry’s or Dr. Hayden’s observation, on 
headwaters of the Kettle, Colorado, Missouri and Columbia Rivers, where Abies nigra seems to be abundant, 
extending down to Santa Fé (Fendler, N. Mex. No. 833). Dr. Parry found it “composing almost the entire [331] 
forest growth of the mountain slopes of Middle Park about the head of Grand River ; a magnificent tree, 80 to 
100 feet high, with an even, columnar trunk, below 2-2} feet in diameter, tapering upwards ; of rapid growth; bark 
scaly, rey and quite thin, of a purplish-brown color, full of tannin, and quite different from the rough brown bark of 
A. nigra of Wisconsin; wood remarkably white and soft, free of knots and Km resinous, preferred for inside 
work.” Could this be “Abies rubra Loud., and specifically distinct from A. nigra 
PINUS ARISTATA, Engelm., in St. Lowis Transact., vol. 2, tab. 5 and 6. Dr. Parry had the good luck to discover 
this very peculiar and exclusively alpine species “ which does not descend lower than 9,000 or 10,000 feet,” on the higher 
mountains of Clear Creek. As a full description and a figure has been given in the Transactions of the St. Louis 
Academy, I confine myself here to the statement that it is our only representative of Endlicher’s section, Pseudostrobus, 
which comprises numerous Mexican, a few Central American, and a single West Indian species; it is characterized 
by quinate entire leaves and horizontal ovate cones, with thin apophyses on the long-mucronate or aristate scales, and 
small winged seeds. In sheltered situations it forms a tree 40 or 50 feet high and 1 or 2 feet in diameter, but on the 
higher bleak mountains it is a stunted bush, often thickly covered with fruit. Its growth, at least in the latter locali- 
ties, is exceedingly slow, asa stick of scarcely more than one inch in diameter, brought back by Dr. Parry, shows 
nearly fifty annual rings, some of them 4; of a line, and none more than ? of a line wide. 
PINUS FLEXILIS, James. This species, discovered in the same regions by Dr. James, has to some extent remained 
doubtful, as his description in the account of Long’s Expedition, and Torrey’s diagnosis in the Annals of the New 
York Lyceum (vol. ii. p. 249) are based on notes only, no specimens having been collected. By later writers it has 
been ignored, until Mr. Fendler in 1847 collected it on the mountains above Santa Fé, (Coll. N. Mex. No. 832), when 
a short notice was published by the writer in the appendix to Wislizenus’ Memoir of a Tour to New Mexico, etc., 1848. 
Endlicher, in his Synopsis Coniferarum, 1847, does not enumerate it, and Carriére in his Traité des Conifaiea, 1855, 
credits it to Wislizenus, translating only my short remarks. Nuttall, however, had already (in 1849) given a somewhat 
extended account of it, with a poor figure, in the continuation of Michaux’s Sylva (vol. iii. p. 107, pl. 112), without 
clearing up the doubts, which Dr, Parry in his present expedition, 1862, is expected finally to settle. My brother, H. 
En siauata, collected it on the headwaters of the Platte, and Dr. Hayden on the mountains about the headwaters of 
the Yellowstone, Missouri, and Columbia rivers. Dr. Parry notes that the cones grow several together, “semipendulous,” 
at the extremity of the horizontal branchlets ; while James gave his plant “erect” cones. Near Santa Fé it grows a’ 
the elevation of 8,000 or 10,000 feet, and in favorable situations becomes 60 or 80 feet high and bears “ pendulous” 
cones, according to Fendler’s note. Pinus fleailis is certainly intermediate between the sections Cembra and 
Strobus of Endlicher, and unites the two, as does P. cembroides, Newberry, Pacif. R. Rep., vol. vi. Bot., p. 44, [3832] 
not Zuce.,! if indeed this is not a mere form of P. flexilis, approaching by its short cones close to P. Cembra. The 
large seeds of P. flexilis are, as Dr. James already stated and as Dr. Hayden confirmed, eaten by the Indians. They 
are distinguished from those of any other of our Pines by a persistent, sharp, keeled margin, representing the wing. 
S$ PONDEROSA, Dougl., is “common through all the lower valleys and less elevated districts of the mountains, 
associated with A. Douglasit and 4. Menziesii ; a most valuable timber tree.” Fendler’s N. Mex. No. 831. Male 
aments cylindrical, several inches long. 
Pinus contorta, Dougl., “is quite abundant on the crest and slopes of dry subalpine ridges, forming the prin- 
cipal part of the forest there, and extending to near the snow line ; a symmetrical tree of rapid growth, 30 or 40 feet 
high, with slim and tapering trunk a foot in diameter, a smoothish, grayish-brown bark, detached in thin scales, and 
tough but coarse wood, which is liable to warp, and rarely cut into boards.” 
a Zucearini’s plant of that name is one of the curious little globose cones, the scales bearing large pyramidal apophyses 
group of American Nut-pines, including the following four and large edible seeds, the wings of which remain attached to 
species : Pinus monophyllos, Torrey and Fremont, with single the scale, which, I suspect, is the case in ail ‘‘ wingless 
(not connate, as Endlicher would have it) leaves ; P. edu/is, of pines ; in P. Pinea, however, the wing is very distinct, and 
Engelm., with 2 leaves; P. cembroides, Zuce. (including P. |. pages itself clearly from the scale and at the same time 
Liaveana, Schiede, not Torr., and P. osteosperma, Engelm.), rom ed itself, which is likewise the case in the 
a ; and P. Parryana, Engelm. (P. Llaveana, Torr. sliealy allied, though 5-leaved, Californian P. Torreyana, 
x. Bound., p. 208, t. 53), with 3-5, mostly 4 leaves. Parry, where the wing, besides, is very thick, and of a corky 
Guise shacceiore taken principally from the bracts of the substance. The great variability in the number of leaves in 
young shoots, strengthen the specific distinctions. This very the nut-pines proves that sectional characters taken from 
natural little group is characterized by the small, almost | them are without value, 
