P. MURICATA 49 
so the story runs as told by some and denied by 
others. As we are not investigating the antecedents 
of the bishop, or the question of his existence or 
non-existence, we must merely content ourselves, and 
probably more than content our readers, by noting 
the fact that the tree grew in the Obispo country, 
and that Obispo means bishop in the language of 
Spain. 
It is one of those weird objects of trees that are 
cone-covered with hooked spine cones of asymmetrical 
shape, oblique and persistent, and often in large 
clusters (like those, for instance, of the P.Tuberculata, 
Insignis, Rigida, and others), growing upon branches, 
branchlets, and sometimes stems. Like the Insignis, 
its persistent cones have the scales much thicker 
on the outer side towards the base. It does not, it 
must be remembered, go as far in its efforts of per- 
sisting as the P. Tuberculata and retain them actually 
embedded in the trunk. But here similarities cease. 
The P. Muricata is a two-leaf-in-a-cluster Pine, 
and the trees with similar cones just mentioned 
are all three-leaved-in-a-cluster Pines, and so tell a 
tale, candle clear, in the direction of identity. 
Compared with the others of its group, the P. 
Muricata is far more commonly seen than any others 
of its family group. Not that anyone is likely to 
meet it in ordinary wayside wanderings or holiday 
rambles—we do not mean to infer that, but only that 
they are quite likely to come across it in those 
places where rare trees were planted in times gone 
by by enterprising collectors; and in such places as 
these it is that you may encounter it, and, when you 
do, wonder at leisure upon the curiosities of plant 
life that Nature has to offer for our observation and 
study. 
P. Puncens.—Lest the serenity of mind of the 
