2 
PINUS ARISTATA 
branched spike or rather head, 6 or 8 lines long; often these heads persist on the axis for two or even 
three years, with a few bunches of leaves above each one, giving the appearance of a leafy spike i or 
ii inches long. 
Professor Engelmann says—“ I have seen branches with sixteen naked spaces, proving that leaves 
were persistent for sixteen years, a fact unheard of among Pines where leaves are said to endure generally 
only three years. The stipitate oval ament, 3 to 4 in. long, has a proper involucrum of four oblong scales 
or bracts of equal length.” 
Male catkins short, clustered round the branchlet chiefly towards the apex; the crest of the anther 
unusually small, scarcely indicated by a knob. Female catkins single or two together, near the end of the 
young shoot, bristling with the lanceolate, aristate, erect scales, of purple-black colour. Cones oval, obtuse, 
2 \ to 21 inches long, about half as much in diameter, often covered with resin as if varnished; growing 
erect or nearly so, two or three near each other, at the termination of the small branches of the branchlets, 
cylindrical obovate when fresh, wider and more expanded in appearance when dry and open, with eight 
rows of scales on the long spiral. Scales dark purplish-brown where exposed (viz., on the apophysis), 
pale fawn-colour where not exposed, the apophysis with a central rhomboidally shaped umbo, from which 
springs a transverse, somewhat pyramidal mucro, terminating in a long, soft flexible spine about 3 lines in 
length, hollow at the base of the under side, rounded on the upper, with a sharp transverse keel stretching 
across the apophysis, dividing it into two unequal divisions, the upper of which is the shortest, and with 
the edges more or less rounded and longitudinally wrinkled. Bracts much altered and apparently obsolete, 
actually connate with the base of the scale, mucronate part free and membranaceous; seeds small, pale 
fawn-coloured, about 1 \ lines in length, placed obliquely to the wing, which is pale, translucent, and short, 
about 3 or 4 lines in length, and 2 or 2\ lines in breadth. Embryo with seven short cotyledons. 
Description .—This is a very remarkable species, combining much of the appearance of the foliage of a 
Fir with the characters of a Pine, its leaves being no larger than those of a Fir. It belongs to Endlicher’s 
section of Pines named Pseudostrobus ; but the extreme shortness of its leaves, and the cone constructed 
on quite a different principle—for example, with a central instead of a terminal umbo—would warrant a 
new section being established for the reception of it and of one other species with equally short leaves— 
viz., Pinus Balfouriana. Yet it is essentially an alpine species, and on the higher bleak mountains is a 
stunted bush often thickly covered with fruit. Dr. Engelmann, in a supplement to the “ Enumeration 
of Plants,” in Dr. Parry’s collection in the Rocky Mountains, says—“ Its growth, at least in the latter 
localities (exposed lofty situations), is exceedingly slow, as a stick of scarcely more than 1 inch in diameter 
brought back by Dr. Parry shews nearly fifty annual rings, some of them £ of a line, and none more than 
1 of a line wide. In sheltered situations it is a tree 40 or 50 feet high, and 1 or 2 feet in diameter. 
Prostrate and almost creeping on the bleak summits of the high ridges. It flowers in the end of June 
and beginning of July” ( American Journal of Science, 2d. ser., vol. xxxiv., No. 102, Nov. 1862). 
Geographical Distribution. —Found in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, on alpine heights, between 
9200 and 11,800 or 12,000 feet high, on Pike’s Peak and the high mountains of the Snowy Range; also 
on the heights of the Coochetopa Pass, nearly south-west of Pike’s Peak, altitude over 10,000 feet. 
Flourishes best in the higher elevations, and never descends below 9000 feet, in its lower ranges not 
ripening its fruit as well as on the bleak heights. Dr. Engelmann speaks of it from this character as 
being the American representative of the European P. Pumilio. It characterises the highest belt of 
timber on the peaks of Colorado. 
Plistory. —This species seems to have been first noticed by Captain Fremont. On his first expedi¬ 
tion he collected a species which could not be satisfactorily determined for want of cones. It was noticed, 
however, 
