George was going through the cones of Pinus Coulteri when I left this afternoon

Looking for viable seeds, he found instead, this tiny next of spiders. He obligingly held it for me to photograph but seemed happy to put it down as soon as I took the picture.

The Pinus coulteri died over the winter and we cut it down. It produced unprecedented quantites of these huge evil cones. Possibly it was stimulated to do so by some awareness that its time was near at hand. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have lived long enough for any seeds to have matured. George went through all the cones on the tables without finding a living seed. We'll need another collection. That means somebody will have to go to Baja California. Oh dear. I'm thinking I could see fit to make the sacrifice.