Distribution. Coast of Alaska, usually in sphagnum-covered bogs southward in the immediate neighborhood of the coast to the valley of the Albion River, Mendocino County, California; south of the northern boundary of the United States generally inhabiting sand dunes and barrens or occasionally near the shores of Puget Sound the margins of tide pools and deep wet swamps; spreading inland and ascending the coast ranges and western slopes of the Cascade Mountains, where it is not common and where it gradually changes its habit and appearance, the thick deeply furrowed bark of the coast form being found only near the ground, while the bark higher on the stems is thin, light-colored, and inclined to separate into scales, and the leaves are often longer and broader. This is Pinus contorta var. latifolia S. Wats. Lodge-pole Pine. _Pinus contorta_ var. _Murrayana_ Engelm. [Illustration: Fig. 27] Leaves yellow-green, usually about 2′ long, although varying from 1′—3′ in length and from 1/16′ to nearly ⅛′ in width. Fruit occasionally opening as soon as ripe but usually remaining closed and preserving the vitality of the seeds sometimes for twenty years. A tree, usually 70°—80° but often 150° high, with a trunk generally 2°—3° but occasionally 5°—6° in diameter, slender much-forked branches frequently persistent nearly to the base of the stem, light orange-colored during their early years, somewhat pendulous below, ascending near the top of the tree, and forming a narrow pyramidal spire-topped head. Bark of the trunk rarely more than ¼′ thick, close and firm, light orange-brown and covered by small thin loosely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, close, straight-grained and easily worked, not durable, light yellow or nearly white, with thin lighter colored sapwood; occasionally manufactured into lumber; also used for railway-ties, mine-timbers, and for fuel. Distribution. Common on the Yukon hills in the valley of the Yukon River; on the interior plateau of northern British Columbia and eastward to the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains, covering with dense forests great areas in the basin of the Columbia River; forming forests on both slopes of the Rocky Mountains of Montana; on the Yellowstone plateau at elevations of 7000°-8000°; common on the mountains of Wyoming, and extending southward to southern Colorado; the most abundant coniferous tree of the northern Rocky Mountain region; common on the ranges of eastern Washington and Oregon, on the mountains of northern California, and southward along the Sierra Nevada, where it attains its greatest size and beauty in alpine forests at elevations between 8000° and 9500°; in southern California the principal tree at elevations between 7000° and 10,000° on the high peaks of the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains; on the upper slopes of the San Pedro Mártir Mountains, Lower California. 21. Pinus Banksiana Lamb. Gray Pine. Jack Pine.