Pinus T^^37 



Mountains in Montana ; and extends southward, in the Yellowstone Park, at 7000 

 to 8000 ft., through the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado, to New Mexico and 

 Arizona. Westwards it is common on the ranges of eastern Washington, Idaho, 

 and Oregon, extending through the Siskiyou mountains into California, where it 

 attains its largest size in alpine forests on the Sierra Nevada, at 8000 to 9500 ft. ; 

 and in the southern part of the state, forms the timber line on the highest peaks of 

 the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains. It is also found ^ on the San Pedro 

 Martir mountain in Lower California. 



In Montana, where I saw it in the Lewis and Clark Reserve, it is essentially the 

 tree which occupies burnt areas, its seedlings appearing in profusion in the mixed 

 Douglas and larch forests, when these are destroyed by fire. In consequence, it is 

 usually seen in dense even stands of tall slender trees, which attain about 100 ft. 

 in height and a foot in diameter at 150 years old. Klers Koch,^ forester in the 

 Gallatin Reserve, reports on its facility of reproduction, as it bears cones early in life, 

 even at 10 to 15 years old when crowded, and says that fire after fire may sweep 

 over a district, and after each fire a new growth of pine springs up, denser than the 

 preceding one. In a sample plot 10 ft. square, taken in a burnt area, 95 pine 

 seedlings had sprung up. In 1885, a fire completely swept the whole length, 20 

 miles, of the Gallatin canon, and there is at present a dense growth of young pines 

 covering the mountain sides. He says that the root system is superficial, and the 

 tree is easily blown down by the wind, as I witnessed myself near Flathead lake, when 

 the tall slender trees came down in a sudden storm like ninepins. The tree appears to 

 grow on most soils, though Koch has noticed that it avoids limestone, and it occurs 

 at a great range of altitude, being met with, according to Leiberg,^ in the Bitter-root 

 Reserve in Idaho, at 2000 to 9000 ft. In Gallatin county, above 7000 ft. it mixes 

 with spruce and A dies lasiocarpa, being replaced at 8500 ft. by P. albicaulis. 



In Idaho, though it usually occurs as dense stands on fire -swept areas, it 

 also grows in considerable quantity in swampy tracts, north-east of Grace Peak, 

 and attains a much greater size, up to 200 ft. in height, with trunks 16 in. in 

 diameter, and clear of branches to 140 ft. and showing 275 years' growth. Low 

 branching trees, resembling P. contorta in habit, are met with in northern Idaho at 

 elevations below 3000 ft. The tree demands light in order to grow well, but bears 

 a considerable amount of shade, though in that case making little growth, a tree 43 

 years old that had been suppressed, measuring only 6^ ft. high and \\ in. in 

 diameter. In Colorado, it appears to be a smaller tree than farther north, averaging 

 75 ft. in height and 8 to 14 in. in diameter. 



Mr. F. R. S. Balfour has kindly supplied us with the following account of the 

 fine form of var. Murrayana, which grows in the Sierra Nevada of California :— 



" On the main ridge between the valleys of the Kaweah and King's rivers, 

 there are large quantities of fine tall trees 100 to 125 ft. high, and earning for 

 contorta the more dignified name of Murrayana. I camped for two nights in a 

 grove of these trees where there were many 12 ft. in circumference and over 100 ft. 



1 Shaw, Pines of Mexico, 29 (l909)- 

 2 From notes supplied by the U.S. Forestry Department, Washington. 



