60 FOREST TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



however, now and then held over on P. Sabiniana, but this 

 misleads no one, for the form is by no means the same, nor 

 are they ever of the light clayey or raw umber color of the 

 Great Coulter Cone ; nor are the leaves alike as to size, length, 

 or color. P. Torreyi, it is true, does not let go its seeds so 

 readily as Sabiniana, but its roundish smaller cone is of dark 

 purple-brown or madder hue, and in neither of these is the 

 wing of the seed of any particular import, while this has 

 much smaller flattish black varnished seed, and very long 

 large dark brown almost black wing, and though stiff, is not 

 thickened at its grasp of the nut, etc. 



This pine, like Torrey's and Sabin's, insignia and others, 

 is of equally rapid growth, yet few are found with clear shaft, 

 the limbs usually coming out low, often near the ground ; 

 thus it seems little suited for sawlogs, and if it w r ere so the 

 lumber is of little value, save as a dernier resort, on account 

 of such an ungainly warping proclivity. To recount exam- 

 ples would partake too much of the grotesque for sober nar- 

 rative ; your house would go into spasms; no Jack nor joiner 

 could make or break joints ; your doors shut at one end and 

 open at the other; children born crying with one jaw out of 

 joint, and your pigs puzzled to know which side of the fence 

 they were on, after the most strenuous efforts in their way. 

 In short, the lumber is altogether too impracticable for com- 

 mon use. 



MONTEREY PINE. 



(Pinus insignis.) 



" Along the pine forests on the shore, 

 Rolls the gathering melody." 



PERCHED close upon the Pacific shores, from Pescadero 

 and Pigeon Point to Monterey, and south to San Simeon 

 Bay, this pine catches the last celestial sunset glow that 

 " fires the tops of the tall pines," and is the favorite conifer 

 of the coast, so universally in cultivation in the vicinity of 

 San Francisco. The best evidence of adaptation to this and 

 similar soils and climates, is found in the fact that concentric 

 rings of annual growth from one to one and a quarter inches 

 thick, and perhaps even more, can be both seen and well 

 substantiated by corresponding history and date, thence 

 showing an average increase of a foot in diameter at least for 

 every seven years, from the seed ; and this in the commonest 

 light soils, without care. Seeds sown broad-cast and left 



