and with a mass of 360 live, body limbs, many 
of them 20 feet long, drooping and sweep¬ 
ing the ground. 
Three other sub-Alpine pines, more or less 
abundant on the mountains of the interior 
Great Basin, reach the eastern slope of the 
Sierra sparsely near the southern end. They 
all have short leaves in fascicles of five each, 
and pendant, oblong cones three to four inches 
long. 
One is the Limber Pine (P. flexilis), with 
slender branchlets, smooth cones, with large, 
nearly round, wingless seeds; found at a few 
stations, notably a few trees in Bloody Canyon 
of Mono Pass, east of Yosernite Valley; also 
a few trees were discovered only last season 
by a forest ranger on the north (desert) slope 
of Mount ,San Bernardino. 
A second species, the Bristle-cone Pine (P. 
aristata), with black bristles half an inch long 
terminating the cone scales, is sparsely in¬ 
habiting several slopes; and the third species, 
the Fox-tail Pine (P. Balfouriana ), with long, 
plumelike limbs, and softer, nearly smooth 
cones, forms a few high groves near Mt. Whit¬ 
ney; while, very strangely, a few lonely trees 
fringe the high forest on Mt. Eddy, near 
Mt. Shasta, 400 miles from its relatives. 
THE BRAVE LITTLE ALPINER 
Lastly, above them all, on the verge of the 
timber line,—the upper fringe of the immense 
forest robe of King Sierra,—are found the 
few living specimens of a truly Alpine tree, 
the White-stem Pine (P. albicaulis ). De¬ 
pressed to firm platforms flooring the high, 
narrow, wind-swept passes, or leaning crip¬ 
pled and stunted against the storm-splintered 
buttresses (or even standing out defiantly, 
alone), all with bodies short and thick, their 
(41) 
