CONIFERS 61 



scales and short oblong bracts emarginate and denticulate at the broad obcordate 

 apex furnished with a short strongly reflexed tip. Fruit cylindrical, slightly nar- 

 rowed to the rounded and sometimes retuse apex, puberulous, bright green, 2'-4' 

 long, with scales usually about two thirds as long as wide, gradually or abruptly nar- 

 rowed from their broad apex and three or four times as long as their short pale 

 green bracts; seeds f in length, light brown, with pale lustrous wings ^' |' long 

 and nearly as broad at their abruptly widened rounded apex. 



A tree, in the neighborhood of the coast 2o0-300 high, with a slightly tapering 

 trunk often 4 in diameter, long somewhat pendulous branches sweeping out in 

 graceful curves, and comparatively slender pale yellow-green puberulous branchlets 

 becoming light reddish brown or orange-brown and glabrous in their second season; 

 on the mountains of the interior rarely more than 100 tall, with a trunk usually 

 about 2 in diameter, often smaller and much stunted at high elevations. Winter- 

 buds globose, ^'-\' thick. Bark becoming sometimes 2' thick at the base of old trees 

 and gray-brown or reddish brown and divided by shallow fissures into low flat ridges 

 broken into oblong plates roughened by thick closely appressed scales. "Wood light, 

 soft, coarse-grained, not strong nor durable, light brown, with thin lighter colored 

 sapwood; occasionally manufactured into lumber in western Washington and Oregon 

 and used for the interior finish of buildings, packing-cases, and wooden-ware. 



Distribution. Vancouver Island southward in the neighborhood of the coast to 

 Mendocino County, California, and along the mountains of northern Washington 

 and Idaho to the western slopes of the continental divide in northern Montana, and to 

 the mountains of eastern Oregon; near the coast scattered on moist ground through 

 forests of conifers; common in Washington and northern Oregon from the sea up 

 to elevations of 4000; in the interior on moist slopes in the neighborhood of streams 

 from 2500 up to 7000 above the sea. 



Occasionally planted in the parks and gardens of temperate Europe, where it 

 grows rapidly and promises to attain a large size ; rarely planted in the United 

 States. 



** Leaves pale blue-green. 

 Cones purple. 



5. Abies lasiocarpa, Nutt. Balsam Fir. 



Leaves marked on the upper surface but generally only above the middle with 

 4 or 5 rows of stomata on each side of the conspicuous midribs and on the lower 

 surface by 2 broad bands each of 7 or 8 rows, crowded, nearly erect by the twist 

 at their base, on lower branches l'-l|' long, about J^' wide, and rounded and occa- 

 sionally emarginate at the apex, on upper branches somewhat thickened, usually 

 acute, generally not more than i' long, on leading shoots flattened, closely appressed, 

 with long slender rigid points. Flowers : staminate dark indigo-blue, turning violet 

 when nearly ready to open; pistillate w4th dark violet-purple obovate scales much 

 shorter than their strongly reflexed bracts contracted into slender tips. Fruit 

 oblong-cylindrical, rounded, truncate or depressed at the narrowed apex, dark purple, 

 puberulous, 21'-4' long, with scales gradually narrowed from the broad rounded or 

 nearly truncate apex to the base, usually longer than broad, about three times as 

 long as their oblong-obovate red-brown bracts laciniately cut on the margins, rounded, 

 emarginate and abruptly contracted at the apex into long slender tips; seeds ^' 

 long, with dark lustrous wings covering nearly the entire surface of the scales. 



