THE SIERRAS AMD PACIFIC SLOPE. 57 



Ject to the ravages of Are. It sweeps through the forest. It 

 finds the cones Imbedded In that resinous coating. Of course, 

 the resin Invites the fire. The cones are burned. The Intense 

 heat opens them. The seeds pop out, fall In the ashes, then 

 take root and another forest springs up In the place of the dead 

 one. If the seeds had fallen from the cones, as in the case of 

 other evergreens, there would have been no provision for this 

 reproduction. 



The Plnus AlblcauUs builds a comfortable shed for the 

 weary traveler as he climbs up to the edge of the timber line. 

 This often grows like an umbrella. It Is frequently flat and com- 

 pact on the top so that a man can walk on it. For years it has 

 been pressed down by the great burdens of snow. It forms a 

 fringe around the bald-headed mountain. There it clings and 

 hangs, wrestling with wind and storm. 



John Mulr says, "In detached clumps, never touched by fire, 

 the fallen needles of centuries growth make a fine, elastic 

 mattress for the weary mountaineer while the tasseled branches 

 spread a roof over him and the dead roots, half resin, usually 

 found In abundance, make capital camp fires, unquenchable in 

 thickest storms of rain and snow. Seen from a distance the 

 belts and patches of this tree darkening the mountain sides look 

 like mosses on a roof." 



Plnus Lambertlana or Sugar Pine. This tree is by far the 

 most kingly of the whole Pine family. 



About the year 1826 David Douglas, an enthusiastic English 

 botanist, making Fort Vancouver, then head quarters of the 

 Hudson Bay Co., his stopping place, would often sally forth 

 in the wonderland of Oregon, One day he saw some seeds in 

 the pouch of an Indian which aroused his curiosity and he 

 could not rest until he found the giant which produced them. 

 After a perilous journey, with his life threatened by the sav- 

 ages, he found a grove of these mionsters. He saw one that 

 had blown down, which was thirty-seven feet nine inches in 

 circumference, and the extreme length was 245 feet. It is no 

 uncommon thing to find them over two hundred feet in height. 

 This tree has Immense cones fifteen to twenty-four inches in 

 length — the largest by far of any. The wood is fragrant and of 

 fine texture, and is used much as we use the White Pine. The 

 name Sugar Pine Is given because sugar exudes from wounds 

 made by the axe or fire. The taste much resembles maple 

 sugar, but like that made from box elder it has somiething of a 

 cathartic nature and cannot be eaten freely. Mr. Douglas nam- 

 ed this tree from an intimate friend. Dr. Lambert in England. 



There is a variety called Purpurea, or Purple Cone, which 

 Is somewhat smaller. 



Plnus Montlcola or Mountain Pine. This tree occupies the 

 same relative position in the Sierras that the Picea Engelm'ant 



