PINUS LAMBERTIAN A. 
3 
open pyramidal head, with that appearance which is peculiar to the Abies tribe.” A copy of a rude fketch of 
the tree drawn by him in his Journal is (hewn in fig. 4. Dr Newberry, again, fays, more poetically, that the 
trunk is “ fparfely fet with branches, which, in their magnificence, feem like the feftoons of ivy which wreathe 
the columns of fome antient ruin ; ” a defcription which would be moll certainly happy if applied to Wel- 
lingtonia , and is probably well applied to this tree. Speaking of the young trees in their native country, he 
adds, “ The young trees of the Sugar Pine give early promife of the majefty to which they fubfequently 
attain. They are unmiflakably young giants , even when having a trunk with a diameter of a foot or more; 
their remote regularly-whorled branches, like the ftem, covered with fmooth greyifh-green bark, fhewing 
that, although fo large, the plant is {fill ‘ in the milk,’ and has only begun its life of many centuries.” 
1 he foliage is of a bluifh-green colour, moderately denfe. As in P. Strobus, towards the fummit of 
the tree a few of the branches are frequently longer than thofe below; and from the extremities of thefe, as 
well as the other branches, fingly, or in clufters, hang the enormous cones. The cones are two years in 
acquiring their full growth. At firft they grow upright, but begin to droop in the fecond year. They 
ripen early in the year. Near Monterey, not far fouth of San Francifco, Hartweg found the cones already 
open and the feeds fallen out by the 20th of September. They are lefs refinous than thofe of P. Strobus 
or excelfa. The feeds have a pleafant nutty flavour. The timber is white, foft, homogeneous, light, 
and ufually ftraight-grained. Douglas found it to abound in turpentine refervoirs, and that the fpecific 
gravity of a fpecimen fent to England was 0.463. As in the other great trees, the annual layers in large 
fpecimens of P. Lambertiana are very narrow. In Douglas’s fpecimen there were fifty-fix in the fpace of 45 
inches next the outfide. 
Geographical DiJlribution .—This gigantic Pine is widely diftributed over the whole country lying 
between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific. According to Dr Newberry (the moll recent explorer), 
its range extends from the Mexican line on the fouth to the vicinity of the Columbia River. It is diffemi- 
nated through nearly all parts of the Sierra Nevada within their limits, and is not rare in the coaft-ranges 
between San Francifco and the Umptqua River. It is alfo generally fpread over the tranfverfe ranges of 
mountains (Sifkiyou, Umptqua, and Calapooya) which connedt the cafcades and coaft-ranges; and pro¬ 
bably the fineft trees of it which exift are in the vicinity of Humboldt Bay and Roque River, on the coaft. 
Douglas found it beyond a range of mountains running in a fouth-wefterly direction from the Rocky 
Mountains towards the fea, and terminating at the Cape Orford of Vancouver. He fays that it grows 
fparingly upon low hills and the undulating country eaft of the range of mountains juft mentioned, where 
the foil confifts entirely of pure fand, and in appearance is incapable of fupporting vegetation. Here he 
found it attain its greateft fize, and perfedfc its fruit in moft abundance. He adds, “ The trees do not 
form denfe forefts, as moft of the other Pines which clothe the face of North-weft America; but, like P. 
rejinofa , which grows among them, they are fcattered fingly over the plains, and may be confidered to form 
a fort of connecting link between the gloomy forefts of the north and the more tropical-looking verdure of 
California.” Dr Newberry on the fame point obferves: “ I have never feen it anywhere exifting in fuch 
numbers as of itfelf to form forefts, but generally occurring affociated with other fpecies which far furpafs 
the Sugar Pines in numbers, while they, in turn, exceed all their fellows in dimenfions. Scattered here and 
there through the foreft, they feem, in their towering grandeur, like fo many chiefs furrounded by their fub- 
jedts and Haves;” and, in his Report on the Zoology of the country, incidentally remarks, “About Shingle- 
town and the Cumbers Flat, north-eaft of Fort Reading, and around the bafe of Lapens Butte, the grizzly 
bears are very numerous. This region is partially covered with a foreft of rather fcattered trees, of immenfe 
fize, of Sugar and Yellow Pine (P. ponderofa), Weftern Balfam Fir (P. grandis ), and Idbocedrus, with 
wide intervals covered with a denfe growth of Manzanita, Ceanothus , and low Scrub Oak. Thefe thickets 
are the favourite haunts of the bear, and are interfedted in every direction by their well-beaten paths.” Of 
the diftrict here alluded to, he elfewhere fays, “ At the Cumbers and Shingletown in Northern California, 
the faw-mills are fet in what muft be a lumberman’s paradife : a foreft compofed of trees of remarkable fize, 
[ 3 ] b perfedfion, 
