THE FORESTS OF THE YOSEMITE PARK 103 



while the secondary branches divide again and 

 again into rather slender sprays loosely tasseled, 

 with leaves eight to twelve inches long. The 

 yellow and purple flowers are about an inch long, 

 the staminate in showy clusters. The big, rough, 

 burly cones, five to eight or ten inches in length 

 and five or six in diameter, are rich brown in 

 color when ripe, and full of hard-shelled nuts 

 that are greatly prized by Indians and squirrels. 

 This strange-looking pine, enjoying hot sunshine 

 like a palm, is sparsely distributed along the 

 driest part of the Sierra among small oaks and 

 chaparral, and with its gray mist of f oliage, strong 

 trunk and branches, and big cones seen in relief 

 on the glowing sky, forms the most striking 

 feature of the foothill vegetation. 



Pinus attenuata is a small, slender, arrowy 

 tree, with pale green leaves in threes, clustered 

 flowers half an inch long, brownish yellow and 

 crimson, and cones whorled in conspicuous clus- 

 ters around the branches and also around the 

 trunk. The cones never fall off or open until 

 the tree dies. They are about four inches long, 

 exceedingly strong and solid, and varnished with 

 hard resin forming a waterproof and almost 

 worm and squirrel proof package, in which the 

 seeds are kept fresh and safe during the lifetime 

 of the tree. Sometimes one of the trunk cones 

 is overgrown and imbedded in the heart wood 

 like a knot, but nearly all are pushed out and 



