61. PINUS MURICATA
- 1837 P. muricata D. Don in Trans. Linn. Soc. xvii. 441.
- 1848 P. Edgariana Hartweg in Jour. Hort. Soc. Lond. iii. 217.
Spring-shoots multinodal. Leaves binate, from 10 to 15 cm. long; resin-ducts medial, hypoderm biform. Scales of the conelet prolonged into a triangular spine. Cones from 5 to 9 cm. long, in verticillate clusters, sessile, reflexed, ovate-conic, oblique, serotinous; apophyses lustrous nut-brown, abruptly much larger on the posterior face of the cone, each armed with a formidable spine varying in size with the varying size of the apophysis.
This species grows on the coast of California, in scattered stations between Mendocino and San Luis Obispo Counties, and on the northwest coast of Lower California and on Cedros Island. It is recognized by its oblique cones, conspicuously spinose, indefinitely persistent and very serotinous. The unequal development of its cone-scales distinguishes the cone from the more symmetrically developed cone of P. pungens. Fruiting trees of P. muricata may be seen in the Royal Gardens at Kew.
Fig. 315, Cone. Fig. 316, Leaf-fascicle and magnified leaf-section.