February 27, 1909 .V 



THE NUT PINE 

 By a. a. Heller 



On the 24th day of January, 1844, Captain J. C. Fremont, 

 the "Pathfinder," came upon Finns monophylla, the nut pine, 

 for the first time. It was in western Nevada, not far from the 

 site of the present city of Carson, near the northwestern limits 

 of the species. 



On the morning of that day an Indian came to the camp, 

 bringing "with him in a little skin bag a few pounds of the seeds 

 of a pine tree, which to-day we saw for the first time, and which 

 Dr. Torrey has described as a new species, under the name of 

 pinus monophytta; in popular language, it might be called the 

 ii itt pine. We purchased them all from him. The nut is oily, 

 of very agreeable flavor, and must be very nutritious, as it con- 

 stitutes the principal subsistence of the tribes among which we 

 were now travelling." 



Having engaged this man to act as a guide to a pass lead- 

 ing across the Sierras, they proceeded upon the journey. 



"The road led us up the creek, which here becomes a rather 

 rapid mountain stream, fifty feet wide, between dark-looking 

 hills without snow; but immediately beyond them rose snowy 

 mountains on either side, timbered principally with the nut pine. 

 On the lower grounds, the general height of this tree is twelve 

 to twenty feet, and eight inches the greatest diameter: it is 

 rather branching, and has a peculiar and singular but pleasant 

 odor." 



In the Second Biennial Report of the California State Board 

 of Forestry, 88, Mr, J. G. Lemmon writes as follows concerning 

 this tree: 



"This curious little Single-leaf Pine has been met with in 

 several places on the eastern and southern slopes of the Sierra. 

 Perhaps its headquarters of greatest development are in the Te- 

 hachapi Mountains, where Fremont detected it again in March, 

 1845, having first discovered it the season before near the site of 

 the present city of Carson, as he was about to find a pass through 

 the Sierra near Lake Tahoe. Fremont noticed this pine with 



