54 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
Cattle frequenting land where Chamaebatia is abundant, 
are said to get their bells so gummed up with its tarry exuda- 
tions at times, that the metal no longer makes a sound. 
Mountaineers often call it tarweed — a generic term, like 
greasewood, applied in the west to many plants of quite diverse 
botanical families. 
Pasadena, Calif. 
OBJECTS IMBEDDED IN TREES. 
BY PROF. C. E. BESSEY. 
SPEAKING of objects imbedded in trees on page 41 of 
the October Botanist^ reminds me of an odd specimen I 
have had on my table for a month or so. It is a section split 
from a stem of a lodge-pole pine (Pimis miirrayana) in which 
are imbedded several cones of this species. The piece of stem 
from which the section was split was a foot long and about 
four inches in diameter at the base, and about three and a half 
inches at the upper end. In this section, which is not more 
than one-fourth of the whole stem, there were imbedded six 
cones, each about an inch and a half long and an inch in 
diameter. When the stick was cut, the cones were almost 
covered with wood, only their tips being visible through the 
small holes which still remained. Had the growth of the wood 
not been stopped, the cones would have been completely cov- 
ered. 
The lodge-pole pine is remarkable for the tenacity with 
which its cones hang on, according to Sargent, ''usually re- 
maining closed for twenty years." These cones in my speci- 
men remained so long that the wood grew over and enclosed 
the cones. A careful count of the annual rings at the base 
of the stick showed fifty rings, so that it is certain that these 
imbedded cones must have formed about fifty years ago., 
Whether the seeds (which are still in the cones) still retain 
their vitality is quite doubtful. 
