264 PRACTICAL POEESTET. 



species, sometimes a wide-spreading, open-headed tree, with 

 long, flexible, drooping branches, while other trees near by wO 

 assume a pyramidal form, or even fastigiate, the latter form 

 more abundant on the dry, rocky sides of canyons in New 

 Mexico than I ever found it elsewhere. A small tree, seldom 

 over fifty feet high, with stem three or four feet in diameter, 

 in California at elevations of five to eight thousand feet, form- 

 ing extensive forests, also in the high mountains, eastward 

 through Southern Utah, Colorado, and southward to New 

 Mexico, growing at elevations of from seven to twelve thou- 

 sand feet, or up to what is called timber-line. Var. aristata, 

 Engelmann, is described as having more ovate cones with thin- 

 ner scales and shorter recurved or awn-like prickles. The spe- 

 cies, however, is so variable, that a large number of varieties 

 can be easily found iu the region named, and I have often re- 

 gretted, when examining them in their native habitats, that I 

 could not transplant some of them to my garden in New Jer- 

 sey. A few specimens that I sent home at the time of my last 

 visit to the mountaJns, two years since, have lived, and were 

 not la the least injxired by the cold of the past two winters, and 

 I am inclined to think that this very distinct western pine will 

 succeed in om* Eastern States if planted in a light, dry, or well- 

 drained soil. 



Pt Banksiana, Lam. — Gray Pine, Scrub Pine. — Leaves in twos, 

 from a very short sheath, only an inch long, quite rigid, and 

 evenly distributed, and of a grayish-green color. Cones about 

 two inches long, ovate-conical, curved or bent to one side, 

 smooth, of a light gray color, scales almost or quite pointless. 

 A small, low tree, twenty feet high, or only a low, straggling 

 shrub. Common far North, and barely reaching our northern 

 borders in Maine. Michigan, and westward to Dakota. 



P. Chihnalinana, Engelm. — Chihuahua Pine. — This is another 

 Mexican Pine that barely extends across the line into Southern 

 Arizona, on the mountains. A small tree, growing thirty to 

 forty feet high, and of little value, except where wood is quite 

 scarce. 



P. contorta, Dougl. — Twisted -Branched Pine. — Leaves in pairs, 

 an inch to an inch and a half long, strongly and closely serru- 

 late. Cones clustered, oval or cylindrical, two to two and a 

 half inches long, scales smooth, or furnished with a very deli- 

 cate prickle. Two cones and a pair of leaves are shown in fig- 

 ure 06, cones somewhat reduced in size. Illustration from 



