528 Forestry Quarterly 



and about 100 broad-leaved species from the temperate regions of 

 the earth. 



Some remarks of the author upon American conifers may be 

 of interest to American silviculturists. In regard to Abies con- 

 color from the Rocky Mountains and from the mountains of 

 the Pacific coast, he beheves that they are two different strains 

 of the same species, for according to his experience, seed from 

 high elevations near the Pacific coast produce grayish-blue plants 

 of somewhat weak growth ; plants which resemble the Rocky 

 Mountain ones much rnore than the vigorous green Abies concolor 

 from seed from the lowland forests of the Pacific coast. The 

 difference between these two types, however, is not nearly so 

 great as that between the quick growing green Douglas fir from 

 the Pacific coast and the much slower growing glaucous Douglas 

 fir from the Rocky Mountains, or between the very quick grow- 

 ing Shore pine {Pinus contorta) of the Pacific coast and the slow 

 growing Lodgepole pine from the Rocky Mountains. He believes 

 it erroneous to consider the latter two as one very variable species. 



Abies balsamea is, in the author's experience, the only species 

 of Abies that preserves its germinating capacity till the spring 

 of the second year after harvesting. The seed of Abies bal- 

 samea, A. nobilis, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, and Picea alba of 

 Danish origin is better, larger sized and of higher germinating 

 capacity than that from their native home. This is probably due 

 to the better site conditions of the ornamental trees. The seed 

 of Sitka spruce from the State of Washington is not easy to 

 bring to germination. It requires higher temperature and even 

 then progresses more slowly than that of the other spruces. 



The seed of Pinus miirrayana from the Rocky Mountains gen- 

 erally almost all germinated (81%) in 10 days; 93 per cent in 

 20 days, while the seed of the same species from the Sierra 

 Nevada had germinated only 3 per cent in 10 days and 21 per 

 cent in 30 days. Owing to its sluggish germination, the sowing 

 of the latter in the nursery often fails. As with the other more 

 or less slow germinating species, this seed should either be care- 

 fully prepared by steeping and germinating before sowing — like 

 P. jeffreyi and P. strobus — or prepared a year before sowing 

 like P. coulteri and P. lambertiana. The seed of P. murrayana 

 from the Rocky Mountains has an average weight per 1,000 

 seed of 4.5 grams ; that from the Sierra Nevada of 10.7 grams. 



