This interesting and peculiar pine has a number of names, most of which are descriptive. The whiteness of the bark and the stunted and recumbent position which the tree assumes on bleak mountains are referred to in the names whitestem pine in California and Montana, scrub pine in Montana, whitebark in Oregon, white in California, and elsewhere it is creeping pine, whitebark pine, and alpine whitebark pine. It is a mountain tree. There are few heights within its range which it cannot reach. Its tough, prostrate branches, in its loftiest situations, may whip snow banks nine or ten months of the year, and for the two or three months of summer every starry night deposits its sprinkle of frost upon the flowers or cones of this persistent tree. It stands the storms of centuries, and lives on, though the whole period of its existence is a battle for life under adverse circumstances. At lower altitudes it fares better but does not live longer than on the most sterile peak. Its range covers 500,000 square miles, but only in scattered groups. It touches the high places only, creeping down to altitudes of 5,000 or 6,000 feet in the northern Rocky Mountains. It grows from British Columbia to southern California, and is found in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and California. Its associates are the mountain climbers of the tree kingdom, Engelmann spruce, Lyall larch, limber pine, alpine fir, foxtail pine, Rocky Mountain juniper, knobcone pine, and western juniper. Its dark green needles, stout and rigid, are from one and one-half to two and one-half inches long. They hang on the twigs from five to eight years. In July the scarlet flowers appear, forming a beautiful contrast with the white bark and the green needles. In August the seeds are ripe. The cones are from one and one-half to three inches long. The seeds are nearly half an inch long, sweet to the taste. The few squirrels and birds which inhabit the inhospitable region where the whitebark pine grows, get busy the moment the cones open, and few escape. Nature seems to have played a prank on this pine by giving wings to the seeds and rendering their use impossible. The wing is stuck fast with resin to the cone scales, and the seed can escape only by tearing its wing off. The heavy nut then falls plumb to the ground beneath the branches of its parent. It might be supposed that a tree situated as the whitebark pine is would be provided with ample means of seedflight in order to afford wide distribution, and give opportunity to survive the hardships which are imposed by surroundings; but such is not the case. The willow and the cottonwood which grow in fertile valleys have the means of scattering their seeds miles away; but this bleak mountain tree must drop its seeds on the rocks beneath. In this instance, nature seems more interested in depositing the pine nuts where the hungry squirrels can get them, than in furnishing a planting place for the nuts