46 FOREST TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



cies, but at length, when of age, and aloft from seventy-five 

 to one hundred, or sometimes one hundred and seventy-five 

 feet high, and from two to five feet in diameter, in full bear- 

 ing, its long horizontal branches well poised and nicely 

 plumed with little laterals and closed around with faintly 

 softened sea-green leaves, two and one half to three inches 

 short; and then there is the selfsame free spread of the great 

 Sugar Pine, only peculiar to these two species ; the five-leafed 

 clusters of needles are set close together in short fugacious 

 boots, points sharp and edges keen, margins finely but 

 remotely toothed, two sides channeled ; the short but exceed- 

 ingly slender foliage thrills very sensitively and delicately, 

 the softer celestial echoes from off the blissful shores, to lull 

 and soothe the sense to peace. Let other pines chaunt louder 

 and grosser songs from their sylvan choirs where old iEolus 

 dwells, these are of the higher angels who are wont to whis- 

 per their love notes low and still, as from the far away isles 

 of the blest, soft as morning zephyrs gently roll the grain-clad 

 dells. The form and size of the cones that cluster and tassel 

 the tips of the branches are quite like those of the White 

 Pine (sometimes called the Soft California White Pine) — 

 oftener a little longer; herein the resemblance is nearly per- 

 fect, being alike on short stems, cylindroid, four to eight 

 inches long, one to two thick, and stiffly curved ; scales smooth, 

 thin, loose, abrupt and mucro-pointed, but not prickly: 

 seeds small, one fourth of an inch long or so, mottled or 

 spattered with brown ; wings from two to three times as long, 

 widest near the middle, diagonally pointed, translucent- 

 creamy, and more or less striped with brown; cotyledons, 

 six to nine. 



Contemplating these conifers, distant from their alpine 

 eyrie, we behold the Great Sugar Pine stretching his wide 

 wing-branches against the sky, like a vast sylvan condor 

 soaring aloft high up over all contiguous trees ; so, also, is 

 seen this lesser Mountain Pine as a sylvan osprey sailing 

 serenely o'er the mountains— tree-hawk of the hills, circum- 

 specting the groves! 



This soft pine of the Pacific is found sparsely distributed 

 over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, at from four to eight or 

 nine thousand feet altitude; timber similar to the white 

 pine, but neither quite so white nor soft, and the texture 

 somew 7 hat tougher. 



