270 



PEACTICAL FORESTRY. 



at an altitude of two or three thousand feet. This species is 

 unknown to me, and the above description is taken from 

 Botany of California, Vol. II, p. 124. 



P. pondercsa, Dougl. — Yellow Pine, Heavy Wooded Pine. — 

 Leaves in threes, five to nine inches long, broad, coarse, twisted, 

 flexible, and of a deep or grayish-green color. Cones oval, three 

 to four inches long, ovate, reflexed, clustered, scales with a 

 stout, straight, or recurved prickle. Seeds dark brown, with 

 long, yellowish wings. Branchlets very thick, with a reddish- 

 brown bark ; that on the old stems very thick and deeply fur- 

 rowed. One of the largest and most common pines in the 

 Rocky Mountain regions, and westward to the Pacific. Trees of 

 these species have been found that were three hundred feet 

 high, with stem twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, but the more 

 usual size is from eighty to one hundred feet. The wood is 

 quite variable, but usually it is rather coarse-grained, hard, and 

 heavy, seldom soft, or as easily worked as the White Pine or 

 closely allied species. I have examined and used many thou- 

 sand of feet of lumber from this tree, and while admitting its 

 value for coarse work, it is inferior as a finishing lumber to 

 many other species. I think, however, that this tree is well 

 adapted to dry, windy, and exposed situations, and shoukl be 

 tried on the western prairies, especially on fight, dry, or stony 

 soils. Several varieties are described in botanical works, but 

 Dr. Engelmann only recognizes two, viz., var. Jeffreyi, a tree 

 with a more rounded top, darker bark and paler leaves than the 

 species. Cones also longer and lighter brown. Var. scopii- 

 lorum, is a smaUer tree, only growing about a hundred feet 

 high, with shorter leaves, and these often in pairs. Cones only 

 two or three inches long, grayish-brown, with stout prickles. 

 The last variety is foimd throughout the Eocky Mountains, 

 from British Columbia, to New Mexico and Arizona. 



P. pnngons, Michx.— Table Mountain Pine.— Leaves two in a 

 sheath, and about two inches and a haK long, rigid, stout, and 

 of a pale yellowish-green color. Cones three inches long, ovate, 

 sessfie, usuaUy three or four in a cluster, with woody scales, 

 armed at the apex with a stout, slightly incurved spine on the 

 upper scales, and recurved on the lower ones. Trees with very 

 irregular-growing branches, and the buds covered with resin. 

 A small tree, thu'ty to fifty feet high, with stem a foot or a Ht- 

 tle more in diameter. It is not a handsome or rapid-growing 

 tree, but quite a rare one, or at least somewhat Hmited in its 



