2 
PINUS FLEXILIS 
Geographical Distribution. —This species occurs on the Rocky Mountains, from New Mexico to the 
49th parallel, according to Parry, occupying the subalpine belt, never forming entire forests: in the lower 
elevation associated with Pinus contorta , approaching the Alpine districts, scattering with P. aristata. 
Dr. Engelmann gives the following habitats with their authority : Fendler (n. 832) collected it in the 
mountains above Santa Fe in 1847, and Dr. Bigelow found it in the neighbouring Sandia Mountains, 
New Mexico, at an elevation of about 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. James, Parry, Flail, and 
Harbour are authorities for its presence in Colorado, H. Engelmann for it on the Laramie Mountains and 
on the headwaters of the Platte, Nuttall on the mountains from the Platte to the Bear River, Fremont on 
the Wind River Mountains, and Dr. Hayden on the Big Florn Mountains and mountains at the head¬ 
quarters of the Snake River and of the Yellowstone, Missouri, and Columbia Rivers. 
Dr. Engelmann mentions that where Mr. Fendler found it on the mountains of Santa Fe, it reached 
a height of 60 to 80 feet; and notwithstanding this great size, he accepts the determination as correct, on 
the ground of Fendler being “ a good authority.” 
Dr. Bigelow (Pacif. Railroad Reports, vol. iv., Whipple’s Expedition, Botanical Report, p. 20), speak¬ 
ing of the specimens met with at the Sandia Mountains, says, “In its cones and habit it is closely allied 
to Pinus Strobus , which is the White or Weymouth Pine of the north and east. On the authority of Dr. 
James, who first discovered this species, it is asserted that the seeds are large and edible.” One would 
imagine from this that Dr. Bigelow had not himself seen the cones, for if he had, he would not require to 
refer to another authority. As the period of the year when he was at the Sandia Mountains was in 
October, the cones must at that time have been in perfection, according to the itinerary of Lieutenant 
Whipple’s Expedition which remained at Albuquerque (which lies in or at the base of the Sandia 
Mountains) from the 17th October to the 6th of November 1853. Dr. Bigelow further mentions that 
“at an elevation of the San Francisco Mountains nearly equal to that of the Sandia Mountains, it was 
found again, forming a large and beautiful tree 100 to 130 feet in height.” This would be about 2nd or 3rd 
January 1854. 
Dr. Engelmann {Trans. Acad. Sc. St. Louis , ii. p. 208) is of opinion that the trees seen by Dr. 
Bigelow on San Francisco Mountains must belong to some other five-leaved species. In the meantime, at 
all events, it will be safe to regard that point with doubt. He quotes Lyall as finding it on the British 
boundary line, in the Rocky Mountains ; but for the reasons we have given under its ally, P. albicaulis , we 
rather refer what Lyall met with to that species. As we have explained under the head of Abies 
Douglasii, there seems to be a gap in the continuity of the productions of the Rocky Mountains to the 
north of Pike’s Peak. 
History. —The first notice of this species is by Dr. James in Long’s Expedition (1823). He says, 
that, like Pinus Strobus , the leaves are five in a sheath, but that beyond this there is little resemblance to 
it. “ The leaves are short and rigid, the sheaths short and lacerated, the strobiles erect, composed of large 
unarmed scales, being somewhat smaller than those of P. rigida, but similar in shape and exuding a great 
quantity of resin.” 
Nuttall next figured it in his continuation of Michaux’s “ Sylva,” pi. 112, Engelmann {Trans. St. 
Louis Acad., supra cit.) says of it, “ Nuttall’s figure in his ‘Sylva,’ pi. 112, is very poor, and even quite 
incorrect; nor can I learn that any specimen of his is preserved in the herbarium of Mr. Durand or of 
the Academy of Natural Science in Philadelphia, but suppose that he had our species in view.” 
Engelmann is the next authority, who speaks of it in Wislizenus’ “Tour in Northern Mexico in 
1846-47,” where he says, “A third species, Pinus ftexilis (James), was overlooked by Dr. Wislizenus, 
but has been collected in five specimens by Mr. Fendler about Santa Fe (in 1847). Its leaves in fives, 
and pendulous cylindrical squarrose cones, assimilate it to P. Strobus , but the seed is large and edible, as 
Dr. James has already remarked, and the leaves are not serrulate and much stouter” (p. 89). 
The 
