34 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [no. 16. 



mouly growing" in narrow lines. The trees are rarely more than 30 

 feet in height, and most of them are much smaller. They bear a mar- 

 velous load of slender curved cones, which on the limbs grow close 

 together in wliorls or lows, and on tlie truidcs are scattered or grow in 

 circles. They renuxiu on the trees for many years, as in the case of 

 few other species, and their large size, extraordinary numbers, and 

 peculiar arrangement give tlie tree a singular and unusual appearance. 

 Vernou Bailey has given me the following note on some knobcone 

 pines examined by him on Panther Creek, September 27, 1898: 



Tbe trees were loaded with eoiies, in whorls of three to seven around the branches, 

 and down the trunks to 10 or 12 feet from the ground. Some of the cones must have 

 been 20 or 30 years old, and perhaps much older. I cut off a lot of the old lower 

 cones to .see if the seeds were good, and put them on a bowlder and cracked them 

 with a few hard blows of the ax. All of them were full of worm dust, with only 

 now and then an undiscovered seed or a fat white worm. Cones of medium age (5 

 or 6 years back from the end of the branch) were invariably occupied by worms and 

 worm dust, and usually contained few good seeds. Cones only 1 or 2 years old 

 were rarely wormy. A great many of the old cones had been dug into by wood- 

 peckers, either lor seeds or, mure likely, for the fat white grubs that live on the 

 seeds. The cones are too hard to be broken or s])lit apart by the woodpeckers, and 

 are opened by a smooth hole drilled into the middle, or sometimes to the 02)]»08ite 

 wall. Usually the opening is long and narrow. .Sometimes the whole inside of the 

 cone has l)eeii drilled out, leaving only the shell; sometimes a small round hole has 

 been drilled just through the outer shell. 



White Fir (Abies concolor loiriana.) — The white fir ranges from 

 Sisson, at the bottom of the west slope of Shasta, up to the lower edge of 

 the Shasta lir belt, which it slightly overlaps. At Wagon Camp (tig. 1, 

 alt. 5,700 feet) both species are common. The white fir requires more 

 nujisture than the other conifers of the lower timber belt, and cou- 

 se(iuently its distribution is discontinuous. It is most abundant along 

 the well-watered eastern base of Mount Eddy, north of Sissou. The 

 highest elevation at which it was observed is a warm ridge on the 

 east Bide of Mud Creek Canyon, between the mouths of INInd and Clear 

 creeks, where, with a number of other Transition /one species, it occurs 

 at an altitude of 0,700 to 7,000 feet. This is 1,000 feet above its usual 

 limit, audits presence heie is due to the angle and steepness of the 

 slope, as explained elsewhere (p. 40). 



Abies loiciana is easily distinguished from A. shastcnsis and .1. itiag- 

 n{ficaby the bark, which is very thick and deeply furrowed, so that it 

 resembles that of Douglas si)ruce {Pncu<l<)tsu[)<i miicnutatd) nuich more 

 closely than that of the other Abies of the region. The cone scales are 

 broad and ratlicr short, and the biact is short aiul tricuspidate (tig. 10). 



Douglas Vm on Si'RUCE {I'svudotsiuja miwronata). — Douglas fir is 

 scattered irregularly through the ponderosa pine forest. Like tlie white 

 tir, it prefers a moister soil than suits the jxjuderosa ])ines, and there- 

 fore thrives best in the gulches and near tlu; streams. Thus along the 

 cool well-watei-ed east baseof Scott Mountains tlu' forest consists maiidy 

 of Douglas and white tirs, with scattered iiu;euse cedars and sugar 



