CONIFERS 



67 



somewhat longer or often two thirds as long as their oblong spatulate acute or acu- 

 minate bracts with slender tips slightly serrulate above the middle and often sharply 

 contracted and then enlarged toward the base; seeds dark reddish brown, |' long, 

 about as wide as their lustrous rose-colored obvate cuneate wings nearly truncate 

 and often ^' wide at the apex. 



A tree, in old age occasionally somewhat round-topped, often 200 high, with 

 a trunk 8 -10 in diameter and often naked for half the height of the tree, com- 

 paratively short small branches, the upper somewhat ascending, the lower pen- 

 dulous, and stout light yellow-green branchlets pointing forward, slightly puberulous 

 during their first season, becoming light red-brown and lustrous and ultimately gray 

 or silvery white. Winter-buds ovate, acute, ^'-^' long, their bright chestnut-brown 

 scales with prominent midribs produced into short tips. Bark becoming 4'-6' thick 

 near the ground, deeply divided into broad rounded ridges broken by cross fissures 

 and covered by dark red-brown scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, comparatively 

 durable, light red-brown, with thick somewhat darker sapwood; largely used for 

 fuel, and in California occasionally manufactured into coarse lumber employed in 

 the construction of cheap buildings and for packing-cases. 



Distribution. Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon, southward over the moun- 

 tain ranges of northern California, and along the entire length of the western slope 

 of the Sierra Nevada; common in southern Oregon at elevations between 5000 and 

 7000 above the sea, forming sometimes nearly pure forests; very abundant on the 

 Sierra Nevada, and the principal tree in the forest belt at elevations from 6000 to 

 9000; ascending towards the southern extremity of its range to over 10,000. 



Often planted as an ornamental tree in western and central Europe, and some- 

 times hardy in the United States as far north as eastern Massachusetts. 



A distinct form is 



Abies magnifica, var. Shastensis, Lemm. Red Fir. 



On the mountains of southern Oregon and at high elevations on those of northern 

 California, and on the southern Sierra Nevada, occurs this form distinguished only 



f'lCi 62. 



by the longer rounded or obtusely pointed (not acute) bright yellow bracts which 

 sometimes cover nearly half their scales. 



