BOTANY. 
19 
Pints Edulis. —Called Pinon by the Mexicans ; Nut Pine of Ncio Mexico, by Americans. The 
fruit of it is called by Mexicans Pihones. 
In every place, from the bluffs of the Llano Estacado, about one hundred and sixty miles east 
of the Rio Pecos, to the Cajon Pass of the Sierra Nevada, this tree is found to be closely associ¬ 
ated with cedars. It seldom grows large. A little west of the San Francisco mountain, and at 
the Cajon, it is found from forty to fifty feet high, but further east it seldom attains more than 
twenty-four. Its usual height, however, is about thirty feet. The timber is seldom used for 
domestic purposes, and I am, therefore, unable to express an opinion of its fitness for railroad 
lumber. The wood is tough and elastic, but with regard to its durability when exposed to the 
vicissitudes of the weather, I am unable to give an opinion. 
From its extensive diffusion along the route, it would be of great value should it prove dura¬ 
ble, for in other respects it would be well adapted to railroad purposes. On the other hand, 
should it be subject to early decay, I have no doubt but that subjecting it to the process of kyan- 
ization, as resorted to in the English railroad system, would obviate the difficulty, and prove 
with us, as with them, more economical in the end, although rather expensive at first. This 
might be the case even with our more durable species. 
Its range of elevation above the sea-level is wider, and it is more extensively diffused than the 
species before mentioned. I have not seen it, however, on the western slopes of the Sierra 
Nevada above Los Angeles, nor in the upper portions of California. 
The nut is sweet and edible, about the size of a hazel-nut. It is used as an article of trade by 
the New Mexicans of the upper Rio Grande with those below, and about El Paso. The fruit 
has a slightly terebinthine taste ; but the New Mexicans are very fond of it. When it is con¬ 
sidered how expensive it is to cultivate corn in those arid regions, where irrigation is necessary, 
one would naturally infer that an oil-nut as easily and abundantly produced as the pinon, 
would be an article of the first importance ; and I have no doubt such will be the case when 
the country comes to be occupied by an enterprising and intelligent race. In the fattening of 
swine, this tree would receive a share of public attention. Bears and other animals, in large 
numbers, are known to subsist upon the fruit in those regions. 
Dr. Engelinann (Bot. Sketch, Wislizenus’ Report, p. 4, 1848) gave a description of this 
tree under the name used above, and Dr. Torrey (Sitgreaves’ Report, PI. 20) has given an 
excellent figure of the same. Three years previously, Dr. Torrey (Report Fremont’s Exploring 
Expedition, p. 319, 1845) described and figured a species of pine under the name of P. Mono- 
phyllus, or the Nut Pine of California, which, according to Fremont, is “ extensively diffused 
over the mountains of northern California, from longitude 111° to 120°, and through a con¬ 
siderable range of latitude.” Dr. Engelmann, in the work previously referred to, describes 
another closely allied species under the title of P. osteosperma, the Nut Pine of northeastern 
Mexico , collected by Dr. Gregg on the battle-field of Buena Vista, with the remark, that the 
“cone and seeds are similar to both others,” i. e., P. edulis and P. monopliyllus. A com¬ 
parison of the two figures of Dr. Torrey, in Fremont’s and Sitgreaves’ Reports, will hardly fail 
to convince the most skeptical that they are varieties of one species j 1 and consequently, Dr. 
Torrey’s name having the priority, will have to be retained and adopted. The principal char¬ 
acteristics of the three species being in the number of leaves in the sheaths, varying from one to 
three, they fail to be distinctive marks. In Dr. Engelmann’s two species, the leaves are 
exactly alike in both ; the only difference being in the hard and soft shell, which is scarcely 
sufficient for a specific separation. Indeed, the California specimens.I found at the Cajon had a 
testa as hard as that of Dr. Engelmann’s Mexican species ; a fact also observed by Mr. Leroux 
with regard to the nut pine north of our line, on the Sierra Nevada mountains, about Walker’s 
and Fremont’s Passes. The extent of the eastern and western range of Fremont’s plant is 9° 
1 See Dr. Torrey’s remarks on P. edulis, in tlie Botanical Report of the Expedition. 
