I02 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
the lower scales upon the branch and 
increasing its rough appearance. The 
seeds are mostly only a little larger than 
Apple-seeds, but in some forms are 
nearly half-an-inch long and form the 
food of many kinds of birds. 
Forest A writer in ff^ jods cmd Forests 
Charms, giyes the following impres- 
sions of the Yellow Pine : — 
" I have oftentimes feasted on the beauty of 
these noble trees when they were towering in 
all their winter grandeur, laden with snow — 
one mass of bloom ; in summer, too, when the 
brown flower clusters hang thick among the 
shimmering needles, and the thick purple burs 
are ripening in the mellow light; but it is during 
cloudless wind-storms that these colossal Pines 
are most richly beautiful. Then they bow like 
Willows, their leaves streaming forward all in 
one direction, and, when the sun shines upon 
them at the required angle, entire groves glow 
as if every leaf were burnished silver. To me 
there is something strangely impressive in this 
play of light upon these Pines. It seems beaten 
to the finest dust, and is shed off in myriads 
of minute sparkles that seem to come from the 
very heart of the trees — as if, like rain falling 
on fertile soil, it has been absorbed, to re-appear 
in flowers of light. 
The trees also give forth the finest music 
to the wind. After listening to it in all kinds 
of winds, night and day, season after season, 
I think I could tell my position on the moun- 
tains by this Pine-music alone. If you would 
catch the tones of separate needles, climb a 
tree. They are well tempered, and give forth 
no uncertain note, each sounding for itself, 
with no interference excepting during heavy 
gales ; then you may detect the click of one 
needle upon another, readily distinguishable 
from their free, wing-like hum. Some idea of 
their temper may be drawn from the fact that, 
notwithstanding their length, the vibrations 
that give rise to their pecuhar shimmering light 
are made at the rate of 250 per minute." 
Natural Forms of Inhabiting such a vast 
the Yellow Pine, j-^^ge of country, and 
living under such variable conditions, 
I now in alpine meadows or old lake- 
basins, now in swamps, and now in hot 
gravelly plains as in Mendocino county, 
California, there is great variety in the 
form and size of the tree, the quality 
of its timber, the length and number of 
its leaves, and the size and character of 
the cones. These last vary widely, those 
in the dense forests being very small, 
while those of isolated trees standing in 
alpine meadows or on open mountain 
sides, are from four to six times larger. 
In the presence of such wide variation 
the natural forms of the tree assume a 
certain importance, and we therefore 
give descriptions of the principal forms 
1 from Prof. Sargent's " Silva of North 
j America." 
I PiNUs PoNDERosA var. Jeffreyii. 
This is in the main a mountain form, 
occurring on the dry volcanic foothills 
of Southern Oregon, and common in 
the great forests of Yellow Pine which 
clothe the slope of the central and 
southern Sierras of California ; though 
it crests the range it is only common at 
high elevations on the seaward slopes, 
where it maintains itself on the driest 
and most exposed ridges, though often 
reduced to the size of a mere shrub with 
stout semi-prostrate branches full of 
knots and angles, and bearing cones as 
large as pine-apples. As one descends 
it gives place to the parent form, and 
less hardy conifers of the Pacific coast- 
belt. From northern California, where 
j it was first reported by John Jeffrey in 
1 8 50, it stretches away to the northern 
part of Lower California where it forms 
large forests extending south as far as the 
middle of the peninsula where another 
