February 27, 1909 35 



about 3 4 inch thick and divided by deep irregular fissures into 

 narrow connected flat ridges broken on the surface into thin 

 closely appressed light or dark brown scales tinged with red or 

 orange color. Wood light, soft, weak and brittle; largely used 

 for fuel, and charcoal used in smelting. The seeds supply an 

 important article of food to the Indians of Nevada and California. 



"Distribution. Dry gravelly slopes and mesas from the 

 western base of the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, westward over 

 the mountain ranges of Nevada to the eastern slopes of the 

 southern Sierra Nevada, and to their western slope at the head-^ 

 waters of King's River, and southward to northern Arizona and 

 to the mountains of southern and Lower California; often form- 

 ing extensive open forests at elevations between 5000 and 7000 

 feet." 



This species is practically a tree of the Great Basin, but 

 passes considerably beyond this area in its westerly extension 

 into the Tehachapi mountains in southern California. 



There are three other nut pines, P. edulis, with leaves two 

 or three to the cluster, common on the eastern slopes of the 

 Rocky mountains from Colorado south, also in southwestern 

 Wyoming, eastern Utah, and extending into northern and cen- 

 tral Arizona and to the mountains of northern Mexico; P. cem- 

 broides, with leaves two or three to the cluster, ranging from 

 central and southern Arizona into northern Mexico and Lower 

 California, usually found at higher elevations than P. edulis, and 

 P. quadrifolia, with leaves usually four to the cluster, found 

 principally in northern Lower California, but extending into 

 Riverside county, California, along the western edge of the Col- 

 orado desert. 



These four species fall into the genus Caryopitis, recently 

 established by Small, in Fl. Southeast. U. S. 29. The distin- 

 guishing characters are leaves with one instead of two fibro-vas- 

 cular bundles, and seeds with narrow or rudimentary wings 

 which separate and remain attached to the scale when the seed 

 falls. 



Pinus monophylla Torr. & Prem. was described and figured 

 in Fremont's Report, 319. 1845. 



The photograph which furnished our cover illustration was 

 taken by Professor P. B. Kenned v. at Steamboat Springs, eleven 

 miles south of Reno, Nevada. 



