7. PINUS LAMBERTIANA
- 1827 P. Lambertiana Douglas in Trans. Linn. Soc. xv. 497.
Spring-shoots pubescent. Leaves from 7 to 10 cm. long, serrulate; stomata dorsal and ventral; resin-ducts external or with one or two ventral medial ducts. Cones from 30 to 50 cm. long, pendent, subcylindrical, tapering to a rounded apex; apophyses pale nut-brown, thick, a narrow border of the under surface showing on the closed cone, the margin rounded or tapering to a blunt slightly reflexed tip; seed with a large nut and a broad short opaque wing.
The Sugar Pine is the tallest of the genus and attains a height of 50 or 60 metres. It grows on mountain slopes and the sides of ravines. Its southern limit is in Lower California on the plateau of San Pedro Martir, its northern limit is in western Oregon. The wood is valuable, its nuts are eaten by native Indians, and the sweet exudation, which gives the tree its popular name, is a manna-like substance of some officinal value. P. Lambertiana is recognized by its long cone and by the constant dorsal stomata of its leaves.
[Plate X]. (leaves and cone much reduced).
Fig. 100, Cone and seed. Fig. 101, Conelet. Fig. 102, Leaf-fascicle and magnified leaf-section.
