The seedlings are more numerous now than formerly, which is attributed to decrease of forest fires. The tree has enemies which generally attack it in youth. Two fungi, _Peridermium harknessi_, and _Dædalia vorax_, destroy the young tree’s leader or topmost shoot, causing the development of a short trunk. The latter fungus is the same or is closely related to that which tunnels the trunk of incense cedar and produces pecky cypress. Gray pine has been cut to some extent for lumber, but its principal uses have been as fuel and mine timbers. Many quartz mines have been located in the region where the tree grows; and the engines which pumped the shafts and raised and crushed the ore were often heated with this pine. Thousands of acres of hillsides in the vicinity of mines were stripped of it, and it went to the engine house ricks in wagons, on sleds, and on the backs of burros. In two respects it is an economical fuel for remote mines: it is light in weight, and gives more heat than an equal quantity of the oak that is associated with it. CHIHUAHUA PINE (_Pinus chihuahuana_) is not abundant, but it exists in small commercial quantities in southwestern New Mexico and southern Arizona. Trees are from fifty to eighty feet high, and from fifteen to twenty inches in diameter. The wood is medium light, soft, rather strong, brittle, narrow ringed and compact. The resin passages are few, large, and conspicuous; color, clear light orange, the thick sapwood lighter. The tree reaches best development at altitudes of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet. When the wood is used, it serves the same purposes as western yellow pine; but the small size of the tree makes lumber of large size impossible. The leaves are in clusters of three, and fall the fourth year. The cones have long stalks and are from one and a half to two inches long. [Illustration] TAMARACK [Illustration: TAMARACK] TAMARACK (_Larix Laricina_) There are three species of tamarack or larch in the United States, and probably a fourth is confined to Alaska. One has its range in the northeastern states, extending south to West Virginia and northwestward to Alaska. Two are found in the northwestern states. Other species are native of the eastern hemisphere, and some of them have been planted to some extent in this country. A species of Europe is of much importance in that country. The tamaracks lose their leaves in the fall and the branches are bare during the winter. The name tamarack or larch should be applied only to trees of the genus _larix_. This rule is not observed in some parts of the West where the noble fir (_Abies nobilis_) is occasionally called larch by lumbermen. It is not entitled to that name, and confusion results from such use.