iod of the year.
They open as nuts do, and then you will find a kernel inside which is
the true fruit.'

"`But I have tasted that, too--it is quite bitter.'

"`You have tasted that of the common pine, and you say true of it; but
there are many species of pine-trees, whose seeds are not only edible,
but pleasant to the taste, and wholesome as an article of food.'

"`What pines, mamma?'

"`Several species are known. Several new ones have been discovered of
late years, and in this very Desert. Perhaps in no part of the world is
found a greater variety of these valuable trees, than in the mountainous
countries which border upon and lie within the Great American Desert.
There is one species in California called "Colorado" by the Spaniards--
which means _red_, because their wood, when sawn up, is of a reddish
colour. Trees of this kind are the largest in the world; they are often
over 300 feet in height! Only think of a tree 300 feet high, when the
tallest we saw in the Mississippi Valley was not much over half that.
Yet there are whole forests of these upon the mountains of the Sierra
Nevada. There is another species almost as large on these same
mountains. It has been called by botanists _pinus Lambertiana_. It is
more remarkable, however, for the size of its cones, which are of the
enormous length of eighteen inches--a foot and a half! Fancy how
singular a sight it must be--one of these gigantic trees with cones
hanging from its branches larger than sugar-loaves!'

"`Oh, beautiful indeed!' exclaimed Frank and Harry at the same time.

"`But, mamma,' added Frank, `are these the sort that are eaten by the
Indians?'

"`Their seeds are also fit to eat, and in times of great distress the
Indians and others resort to them for food; but it is not of them I
intended to speak. It is of another kind very distinct from either, and
yet growing in the same region. It is a small tree, rarely seen of more
than thirty or forty feet in height, and with leaves or needles of a
much lighter green than the generality of pines. Its cones are not
larger than those of the common sort; but the seed or kernel is oily
like the American walnut, and quite as agreeable in flavour. They
cannot be otherwise than nutritious, since, as I have said, they form
the whole subsistence of many people for months in the year. They can
be eaten raw; but the Indians usually roast them. When roasted or
parched, and then ground in a mill, or broke