The branches also become fruitful after they attain sufficient size.

The average size of the older trees is about thirty or forty feet in height, and twelve to fourteen inches in diameter.

The cones are about four inches long, exceedingly hard, and covered with a sort of silicious varnish and gum, rendering them impervious to moisture, evidently with a view to the careful preservation of the seeds.
No other conifer in the range is so closely restricted to special localities.

It is usually found apart, standing deep in chaparral on sunny hill-and canon-sides where there is but little depth of soil, and, where found at all, it is quite plentiful; but the ordinary traveler, following carriage-roads and trails, may ascend the range many times without meeting it.
While exploring the lower portion of the Merced Canon I found a lonely miner seeking his fortune in a quartz vein on a wild mountain-side planted with this singular tree.

He told me that he called it the Hickory Pine, because of the whiteness and toughness of the wood.