292 PINUS, OE 



shoots, and of a dark purple colour. Cones oval, blunt-pointed, 

 purplish-brown, often covered with resin as if varnished, and 

 from two inches and a quarter to two and three-quarters long 

 and about one inch and a half broad. Scales rhomboid, half 

 an inch long and one-third of an inch wide, with the trans- 

 verse ridge rather flat ; protuberance very conspicuous, with 

 the slender mucro or awn, from the small rhombic. Central 

 mucro two or three lines long, curved upwards at first, but 

 afterwards tortuose and easily broken off. Seeds nearly three 

 lines in length, with obovate wings six or seven lines long. 

 Cotyledons or seed-leaves seven in number. 



This very singular pine is a truly alpine species, characterizing 

 the highest belts of timber on the peaks of the Colorado Moun- 

 tains in California; where on sheltered slopes, at elevations 

 between 9000 and 10,000 feet, it forms a tree from 40 to 50 feet 

 high, with a stem from one to two feet in diameter, covered 

 with a thin, scaly, light-grayish-brown bark, not more than 

 three or four lines thick, even on old trees ; but on the high 

 bleak mountains of the Snowy Eange, on Pike's Peak, and on 

 the heights of the Coochetopa Pass, at an elevation of from 

 10,000 to 12,000 feet, it becomes a straggling bush, frequently 

 prostrate or almost creeping, and thickly covered with cones. 

 It, however, never descends to a lower elevation than 9000 

 feet. The wood is white, tough, and not very resinous. 



It was first introduced in 1870, by Mr. Cripps, Nurseryman, 

 at Tunbridge WeUs. 



No. 60. PiNUS Ayacahuite, Ehrenberg, the Ayacahuite Pine. 

 Syn. Pinus strobiliformis, WisUzenus. 



Leaves in fives, three-edged, slender, but rather stiff, flat on 

 the back, with a sharp projecting mid-rib and two furrows on 

 the imier face ; from three to four inches long, straight, very 

 glaucous on both sides, and whitish when young, with a few 

 wide serratures near the points. Sheaths short, scaly, mem- 

 branaceous, and soon curling up and falling off. Branches 



