Rocky Mountain Nut Pine 



17 



and four-angled, gradually narrowed into a knob which is flat or sunken at the 

 apex and without either spine or bristle. Like the other nut pines the middle 

 scales only bear seeds; these are oblong, 15 mm. long, rather sharp-pointed, fuU 

 and rounded at the base, yellowish on the sKghtly flattened upper side, dark red- 

 dish brown on the rounded lower side ; endosperm resinous and oily ; wing narrow, 

 adhering to the cone-scales when the seed falls; cotyledons 7 to 10. 



The wood is soft, brittle and weak, close-grained, yellow to light brown; its 

 specific gravity is about 0.56. It is largely used for fuel and to supply charcoal 

 to the smelters of the region. The seed is used as food by the Indians who gather 

 the cones and expel the seeds from them by heat; they are used fresh or roasted 

 and stored for future use, and are also made into meal. 



It is also called Single-leaf pine, Pinon nut pine, Nevada nut pine, Gray pine, 

 and Fremont's nut pine. 



10. ROCKY MOUNTAIN NUT PINE — Pinus edulis Engehnann 



This is also called Pinon, Nut pine, Pinon pine, and New Mexican pinyon, and, 

 like the other nut pines is a small tree of the drier mountain regions, at altitudes 

 of 1800 to 2400 meters, forming forests with Juniper and one or more other pines 

 in southwestern 

 Wyoming, Colorado, 

 eastern Utah, western 

 Texas to Arizona, and 

 adjacent Mexico. Its 

 maximum height is 

 12 meters, with a 

 trunk diameter of 7.5 

 dm., but it is usually 

 much smaller. 



The trunk is short, 

 often di\'ided very 

 nearly to the ground. 

 The branches are 

 horizontal at first, the 

 tree becoming round 

 topped. The bark is 

 12 to 18 mm. thick, 

 irregularly fissured into connected ridges covered by close light brown or reddish 

 yeUow scales. The twigs are stout and covered by the closely imbricated scales 

 of the branch-buds, which gradually disappear, the twigs becoming fight gray or 

 reddish brown. The leaves are in sheathless fascicles of 2 or 3, triangular or 

 nearly round, dark green, stout, 1.8 to 4 cm. long, entire, marked with 5 to 15 rows 

 of stomata, and contain 2 resin-ducts and a single fibrovascular bundle, the apex 



Fig. II. — Rocky Mountain Nut Pine. 



