Re: Monterey Pine

I'm assuming "Digger" is offensive because it was an early descriptive (and
admittedly derogatory-sounding) name given to the indigenous people who used
the pine seeds as a food source.  Obviously it was not what they called
themselves.  It was also called the Sabine Pine, as in the following
description, my personal favorite, by John Muir from My First Summer in the
Sierra, describing his experiences of the summer of 1869:

	"The pack-animals were led by Don Quixote, a heavy rifle over his shoulder
intended for bears and wolves.  This day has been as hot and dusty as the
first, leading over gently sloping brown hills, with mostly the same
vegetation, excepting the strange-looking Sabine pine (Pinus Sabiniana), which
here forms small groves or is scattered among the blue oaks.  The trunk
divides at a height of fifteen or twenty feet into two or more stems, out-
leaning or nearly upright, with many straggling branches and long gray
needles, casting but little shade.  In general appearance this tree looks more
like a palm than a pine.  The cones are about six or seven inches long, about
five in diameter, very heavy, and last long after they fall, so that the
ground beneath the trees is covered with them.  They make fine resiny, light-
giving camp-fires, next to ears of Indian corn the most beautiful fuel I've
ever seen.  The nuts, the Don tells me, are gathered in large quantities by
the Digger Indians for food.  They are about as large and hard-shelled as
hazelnuts -- food and fire fit for the gods from the same fruit."

Kurt Mize
Stockton, California
USDA Zone 9
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