I December 31, 1910 I2 9 



I use the expression "wingless seed" for the reason that it 

 much better describes the actual character than does "rudimen- 

 tary wing" or "vestige of a wing." I have examined numerous 

 cones of Pinus albicaulis, and more recently those of the species 

 under discussion, and have failed to find the trace of a wing on 

 any of the seeds. The seed is simply imbedded in a cavity at 

 the base'of the scale, which cavity may or may not have a thin 

 raised edge. This thin raised edge when present is apparently 

 by courtesy termed the "wing," but I do not see how it has any 

 claim to that title, for it is not part of the seed, but a part of the 

 scale and remains affixed to it. 



I first saw P. flexilis in 1908 on the Clover mountains, as 

 the northern part of the Ruby mountains in eastern Nevada is 

 called. The cover illustration is taken from a clump of trees at 

 timber Hue, the altitude about 10000 feet, and shows the low 

 decumbent growth caused by high altitude and the snows of 

 winter. The tree is fairly common on the Clover mountains at 

 altitudes of 9000 to 10000 feet, but ranging somewhat higher as 

 well as lower under favorable conditions. It attains its greatest 

 size, thirty to fifty feet, with a trunk diameter of a foot to a foot 

 and a half, on cool north slopes or in ravines at the upper end 

 of canyons where snow lies late in summer. On a ridge east of 

 Lamoille there is a fairly dense stand of large trees, and doubt- 

 less there are similar groves in the surrounding rugged country, 

 but as a rule it occurs as scattered individuals not frequent 

 enough to impart the dark hue common to timbered ridges. 

 The name for it in the region is white pine. 



Engelmann, in Trans. St. Louis Acad. 2: 208. 1863, writes 

 as follows concerning this species: 



"On the Rocky Mountains, from New Mexico to the 49th 

 parallel, 'occupying the subalpine belt, never forming entire for- 

 ests, in the lower elevations associated with P. contorta, ap- 

 proaching the alpine districts, scattering with P. arista to* (Par- 

 ry's Notes)." 



'V. flexilis^ the American representative of P. Cembra of 

 the Old World, is a middle-sized tree, usually 30-50 feet high, 

 thouirh Fendler, a sjood authority, saw it near Santa Fe (> 



