March 31, lyi i 33 



THE (;ray pink 



By a. a. Hkkler 



PiNL'S Sabiniana Doiio^l. Trails. Linn. vSoc. U»: 747. 1833. 



The following account of this species is given by Sndworth 

 in Forest Trees of the Pacific vSlope: 



"Gray or Digt^er pine owes its common names to the pale 

 blue-green color of the foliage and to the fact that the large seeds 

 furnish an important food to the California Digger Indians. Its 

 gray, thin-foliaged crown of one or two long upright forks with 

 lower drooping small branches distinguish it at long distances 

 from a.ssociated trees. The meager foliage permits the big, dark 

 cones to be seen half a mile away. Young trees form a rounded 

 or pyramidal crown of upright branches from a short, thick stem. 

 In middle age two or more of the upper branches grow very 

 large and long, forming conspicuous U-shaped forks. Old trees 

 are from 50 to 75 feet high, with a bent or rarely straight trunk 

 from 20 to 30 feet long and from 18 to 30 inches in diameter. 

 Larger trees are sometimes found. The bark of young trees and 

 of branches is a dull gray; that of mature trunks is about 2 

 inches thick and very roughly furrowed and ridged. The ridges 

 are scaly, wide, irregularly connected, and of a dark gray-brown, 

 tinged with purple-red in unweathered parts. The thin, droop- 

 ing clusters of leaves, a light blue or gray-green, occur two in a 

 bundle, and are from 8^ to about 12 inches long. Those of a 

 year's growth remain on the tree for three cr four years. When 

 the tree is planted for ornament in a rich, irrigated soil, within 

 its natural range, the foliage becomes very much stouter, giving 

 the tree an entirely different aspect from one grown in its dry 

 native habitat; the cones of such cultivated trees are usually 

 smaller. With the exception of the Coulter pine, the gray pine 

 produces the largest and heaviest cones of any American pine. 

 They mature by September of the second .season, remaining 

 firmly attached to the branches for a number of years. The 

 cone scales open very slowly, so that seeds continue to be shed 

 for several months. Indians hasten the opening of the cones by 

 placing them in a small fire. Cones are from 6^< to 10^2 inches 



