50 FOREST TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



conifers are too colossal, or if lesser, too spreading for com- 

 mon purposes, being so liable to crowd contiguous trees and 

 shrubbery out, for only a few, like Chamsebatia foliolosa, etc., 

 thrive under their shade or drip; then, again, they prove 

 too dark and monotonous, even when of requisite size for 

 middle or foreground use ; are sometimes of exceedingly slow T 

 growth, and do not well bear near approach and more criti- 

 cal inspection ; above all, the light gray mealy-green or glau- 

 cus bloom of the leaves of this species is even more striking 

 than the gray-gauzy Sabin or Large Nut Pine or the common 

 Pinyon (P. monoplnjlla), besides being of more rapid growth — 

 bark light gray and smooth above, rougher below. Parry's 

 Pine, in youth or prime, is rather steeply pyramidal, perfect 

 in outline, compact in close foliage, but, judged only from 

 trees of great age that have struggled desperately upon poor 

 burning or bleak exposures of rocky ridges, they are reported 

 with a round top, just as we see in those allied nut pines, 

 cypresses, and similar trees, according to respective situations 

 apart from their natural habit, which distorts and renders 

 their forms, in a great degree, abnormal. 



The timber is in great request where so little else is to be 

 had, but the quality is not well known. The edible nuts are 

 small, and hence others are preferred by the Indians. To 

 them the pinyon is inestimable — a very feast of fat things; 

 this is another of half a dozen or more nut pines. This is 

 readily distinguished from Pinyons par excellence by the num- 

 ber of leaves in the little boots or sheaths. These needles or 

 awl-like leaves are short, one and a quarter to two inches 

 long, three to five in each bootee — usually four; cones some- 

 what globose, from one and a half to two inches thick, with 

 strongly elevated knobs on the top of the scales; seeds oval, 

 barely one half of an inch or less long, with a thin light- 

 brown mottled shell; cotyledons, eight. Found only near 

 the southern boundary of the State. 



