130 Muhlenbergia, Volume 6 



feet high. ... In Colorado it is a fine tree, with tapering 

 trunk and oval outline, branching alnio t from the base, lower 

 branches horizontal, upper ones ascending; wood white, hard, 

 annual rings from one-eighth to T J line, on an average % line 

 wide; trees becoming in 250-300 years about 1 foot thick. 

 Leaves crowded towards the ends of the very flexible branches, 

 persistent 5 or 6 years, usually 1 %-2y£, very rarely 1 to 3 inches 

 long; sheaths similar to those of P. Strobus or P. Con bra, 8 

 lines long, deciduous. Male aments 4-5 lines long, forming a 

 thick spike 10-12 lines long, cones subcylindric, tapering to the 

 end, 4-5 inches long, 2 inches in the largest diameter, on short 

 peduncles; scales 12-14 lines long, 10-12 lines wide, squarrose; 

 lowest sterile ones recurved; fertile ones with deep impressions 

 for the reception of the seeds both on the upper inner side and 

 on the back, the latter cavities partly formed by the large (4-6 

 lines long) ligneous or rather corky bract. Seeds 4-5, rarely 6 

 lines long, irregularly ovate or obovate; wing minute, not decid- 

 uous nor adhering to the scale, as in P- Cem&ra, P. edutis, etc., 

 but reduced to a persistent keel on the upper end and outer edge 

 of the seed; embryo with 8 or rarely 9 cotyledons." 



In Amer. Journ. Sci. and Arts II. o4: 332, he further states 

 that "the large seeds of P. flexilis are, as Dr. James already 

 stated and as Dr. Haydcn confirmed, eaten by the Indians. 

 The) are distinguished from those of any others of our Pines by 

 a persistent, sharp, keeled margin, representing the wing." 



In Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope, by George B. Sud- 

 worth, issued in [908 as a publication of the Forest Service, are 

 found the following remarks, pages 27 to 30: 



"Young trees are peculiar for their regular, distant whorls 

 o\ short, very tough branches which stand al right angles to the 

 trunk and extend down to the ground. Middle-aged and old 

 • (75 to 200 years) are characterized by extremely long and 

 slendei branches, especially near the ground and at the top; the 

 latter are often [6 or [8 feet in length, falling gracefully at a 

 sharp angle with the trunk. These branches appear to develop 

 entirely at the- expense of the trunk, which remains stunted. 

 Old trunks have bark from 1 \, to nearly 2 inches thick, black- 



