[pct-l] Re foxtails vs bristlecones and other cosmic issues

[robertbrady@mindspring.com (Rob Brady)]

Imagine, you saw a foxtail pine that had lived in a ranger station for =
4900 years . . .

I'm just joking with you; my mom was an English teacher and I can't help =
it.=20

1.  The foxtail pine is not the same as a bristlecone pine, though they =
are easily confused. The pinecones are noticeably different.  The cone =
of the bristlecone pine has long terminal, hooked spines.  The foxtail =
cone has much shorter terminal spines.

2.  For radiocarbondating methods using old pine trees, and getting it =
within a 'gnat's ass' as you suggest, you might read two of H.E. Suess's =
works on the subject-- "Bristlecone Pine Calibration of the Radiocarbon =
Timescale 5200BC to the Present [1970]" presented in that year to the =
Twelfth Nobel Symposium held in Uppsala, Sweden and published; and the =
record "Bristlecone pine wood of the past 8000 years based on the =
dendrochronology (read: tree ring counting) of the late C.W. Ferguson" =
contained in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, =
vol A 330 pp 403-412.  War tree-huggers.=20


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