20 



The Pines 



for 4 to 6 dm. and persist for a number of years. The staminate flo^vers are in 

 crowded, spike-like clusters, 12 mm. long; anthers reddish or orange. Pistillate 

 flowers nearly terminal, oblong-oval, about 12 mm. long, their scales dark purple, 

 ovate and sharp-pointed. The cones mature by the second autumn and are pen- 

 dulous, nearly cylindric, 7 to 12 cm. long, about 4 cm. in diameter and dark pur- 

 ple; the scales are elongated and narrow, slightly concave, much thickened, 

 rounded, transvei-scly ridged, and terminated by an oblong, dark, concave knob, 

 appendaged by a small deciduous spine. The seed is ovoid, full and rounded at 

 the apex, tapering to the flattened base, about 8 mm. long, marked with dark 

 purple; its wing narrowed upwards, somewhat obhque, 4 to 6 mm. wide; cotyle- 

 dons about 5. 



The wood is soft, weak and brittle, close-grained and satiny; its specific gravity 

 is about 0.54. The tree is reported to grow also in southern Oregon. 



13. HICKORY PIXE — Pinus aristata Engelmann 



This rather small tree of the mountains of Colorado to Nevada, Arizona and 

 southeastern California seldom forms forests alone, but is interspersed often with 

 the Rocky IMountain white pine, and with Engelmann's spruce, at altitudes of 

 2400 to 3600 meters. Its maximum height is 15 meters, with a trunk diameter 

 of 9 dm. At the higher altitudes it is often shrubby and much contorted. It is 

 also called Foxtail pine and Bristle cone pine. 



The branches are stout, whorled, and verj- regular, forming a rather stiff cone- 

 like tree; in old age it becomes more or less contorted by the irregular development 

 of some of its branches. The bark is 12 to 16 mm. thick, irregularly fissured into 

 confluent, broad, flat ridges, their surface broken into small, close scales of a red- 

 brown color; on young stems it is 

 thinner, smooth, almost white, and 

 filled with resin bhsters which be- 

 come enclosed in the thicker, older 

 bark. The twigs are stout, orange- 

 yellow and smooth, becoming dark 

 brown or nearly black and rough- 

 ened by the persistent remnants of 

 the bud-scales. The branch-buds 

 are broadly ovoid, sharp-pointed, 8 

 mm. long, or the lateral ones smaller, 

 their scales pointed. The leaves 

 are in fascicles of 5, their sheaths 

 soon disappearing; they are dark 

 green and shining, stout or slen- 

 der and recurved, 2.5 to 4 cm. long, 

 stiff, calloused-tipped, their lower faces marked with narrow rows of pale stomata, 



Fir,. 14. 



■ Hickorv Pine. 



