PINUS BALFOURIANA. 



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Pinus Balfouriana. — An Alpine species, of variable height; in 

 sheltered slopes, it is a tree 40 feet high and of pyramidal outline, 

 but becomes a straggling bush, prostrate, and almost creeping on 

 the bleak summits of the higher ridges of Colorado. The leaves are 

 short, rigid, light green, very glaucous on the inner faces, appressed 

 to the stem and persistent many years, forming tufts of foliage one 

 foot or more long at the ends of the branches. The cones are oval, 

 about 2£ inches long and half as much in diameter, composed of 

 rather hard coriaceous scales, the exposed part with a rhombic pro- 

 tuberance, in the centre of which is a small mucro or hook curved 

 upwards. 



Habitat. — North California, on the Shasta and Scott Mountains; on 

 the high mountains extending through Nevada, northern Arizona, 

 Utah, and Colorado. 



Introduced in 1852 by John Jeffrey; and, many years afterwards, 

 reintroduced under the name of Pinus aristata, which is now regarded 

 as a variety of P. Balfouriana. 



Pinus Balfouriana is a very slow-growing Pine even on its native 

 mountains, where it may be regarded as the' American representative 

 of the European P. montana. From the peculiar tufted appearance of 

 the foliage, it has acquired the name of the "Fox-tail Pine" in 

 Nevada. 



The specjfic name Balfouriana was given by Mr. Murray, in com- 

 pliment to the late Professor Botany, in the University of Edinburgh, 



