PINE FAMILY 47 



Coast Range. Singular tree, remarkable for its long slender cord-like branch- 

 lets perfectly pendulous from the usually horizontal limbs. 



Refs. — PiCEA BREWERIAXA Watson, Proc. Am. Acad. vol. 20, p. 37S (1SS.5), type loe. summit 

 of the Siskiyous on Happy Camp Trail, Tlios. Howell (1884). 



4. PSEUDOTSUGA Carr. False Spruce. 

 Large trees with Hat, short-petioled leaves, spreading around the stem 

 or on horizontal branches often somewhat 2-ranked. Staminate catkins axil- 

 lary, the anthers tipped with a spur and opening obliciuely. Ovulate catkins 

 erect, terminal or axillary. Cone.s pendent, maturing in the first autumn : 

 scales thill, rounded, shorter than the slender acutely 2-lobed bracts which 

 bear a spear-like point in the notch. Seeds without resin vesicles; cotyle- 

 dons 5 to 12. — Three species, 2 in America and 1 in Japan. In botanical rela- 

 tionship it stands in an intermediate position among Picea, Tsuga, and 

 Abies. The general habit and branching, the leaves spreading all around 

 the stem, tlie nieditun-sized pendent cones ♦borne all over the tree, the per- 

 sistent cone-scales, the seed with(jut resin vesicles — in all these features 

 it resembles Picea. ditt'ering from it most markedly in its bark, which is not 

 thin and scaly, and in its exserted bracts. In its petioled lilunt leaves, often 

 pendent leader of very young trees, and persistent cone-scales it is like Tsuga. 

 In its roughly fissured thick bark and exserted bracts it resembles Abies. Its 

 peculiar cone bracts, signally different from those of any other conifer, and 

 the obliquely dehiscing anthers are the chief marks of the distinctive genus 

 Pseudotsuga. (Name from Greek, pseudo, false, and Japanese, tsuga, hemlock.) 



Cones 1.'4 to Syi inches long; bracts conspicuously exserted; Sierra Nevada and Coast 



Eanges 1. P. taxifolia 



Cones 4 to 7;/2 inches long; bracts protruding little; S. California only 2. P. macrocarpa 



1. P. taxifolia Britt. Douglas Fir. Doi'glas Spruce. (Figs. 7 and 8.) 

 Forest tn^e 7(1 to 2(M) feet in height, in dense stands often exhibiting clear 

 trunks 100 to 150 feet high and -4 to 8 feet in diameter; bark on young trees 

 thin, smooth, gray or mottled, sometimes alder-like, on old trunks 1 to 61/2 

 inches thick, soft or putty-like, dark brown, fissured into broad heav.y furrows, 

 in cross section showing alternate layers of red and white ; branchlets usually 

 drooping, the leaves spreading all around the stem or on horizontal branchlets 

 spreading more or less to right and left but not truly 2-ranked; leaves % to 

 IVL- inches long. Vl' to 1 line wide, linear, blunt at apex, flat with a median 

 groove above and green, below with 2 pale longitudinal bands and a median 

 ridge, very short-petioled; staminate catkins conie-cylindric. 4 or 5 lines 

 long, exserted from winter buds on a peduncle 2 or 3 lines long and scattered 

 along the under side of the branchlets; pistillate catkins erect, terminal or lat- 

 eral. 1 inch long, the bracts very conspicuous on account of the small size 

 of the scales at this stage ; cones pendulous, long oval and more or less 

 pointed. 1% to 2i/o or 3Vo inches long. I14 to 1% inches in diameter when 

 open; scales broad and roinided at apex; bracts conspicuously exserted, broadly 

 linear and bearing in the deep notch at apex a spcar-likc point: seeds 3 lines 

 long, almost as long as the wings; cotyledons 5 to 8. 



Sierra Nevada from Mt. Shasta and Lassen Peak southward to Fresno Co. 

 (Stevenson Creek. 3.000 to 5.500 feet). Coast Ranges, from Santa Lucia Mts. 

 (southern limit in California). Santa Cruz Mts.. Bolinas Ridge. Inverness 

 Ridge, outer North Coast Range, ]\It. Hood and Napa ranges, Upper Cache 



