CONIFERS. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



67 



Columbia, farther south it is principally confined to the low sandy alluvial plains at the mouths of 

 streams, on which, mingling with the western Arbor Vitse, it grows to its largest size along the coast 

 of Washington and Oregon, and to moist bottom-lands which it follows inland to the foothills of the 

 Cascade Mountains of Washington and northern Oregon, sometimes ascending on the Nisqually and 

 other streams which flow into Puget Sound to elevations of two thousand feet above the sea. South 

 of the valley of the Columbia River it is confined to the neighborhood of the coast, and although the 

 Tideland Spruce grows in northern California to a very large size on the rich alluvial plains at the 

 mouths of streams and in low valleys facing the ocean, where it is associated with the Eedwood and 

 the White Fir, it is less common and of less magnificent proportions than on the shores of Puget 

 Sound. South of Cape Mendocino it is not common. 



The wood of Picea Sitchensis is light, soft, not strong, and straight-grained, with a satiny surface ; 

 it is light brown tinged with red, with thick nearly white sapwood, and contains numerous prominent 

 medullary rays, few resin passages, and inconspicuous narrow bands of small summer cells. The specific 

 gravity of the absolutely dry wood is 0.4287, a cubic foot weighing 26.72 pounds. It is the principal 

 lumber manufactured in Alaska, where, as it splits easily, it is also largely used for fuel. It is 

 manufactured into lumber on Puget Sound, and is used in construction, in the interior finish of 

 buildings, for fencing, for the dunnage of vessels, in boatbuilding and cooperage, and for wooden- 

 ware and packing-cases. 



Picea Sitchensis was discovered on the shores of Puget Sound in May, 1792/ by Archibald 

 Menzies,^ the surgeon and naturalist of Vancouver, during his voyage of discovery round the world, 

 although it was not described until forty years later. It was introduced into European gardens in 

 1831^ by David Douglas,^ and has already grown to a large size in several of the countries of western 

 and central Europe.^ In the eastern United States it suffers from the cold of severe winters and from 

 heat and drought in summer, and rarely survives more than a few years. 



The greatest of all Spruce-trees, this inhabitant of the northwest coast is surpassed by few other 

 trees in thickness and height of stem. No tree in the American forest grows with greater vigor or 

 shows stronger evidences of vitality,® and there are few more beautiful and Impressive objects in the 

 forests of temperate North America than one of these mighty Spruce-trees with its spire-hke head 



^ The " Norwegian Hemlock " mentioned by Vancouver among 

 the trees he saw when he landed on the shore of Puget Sound was 

 probably this Spruce {A Voyage of Discovert/ to the Northern 

 Pacific Ocean and Around the World/i. 249). It was well described 

 in the journal of Lewis and Clark, who passed the winter of 1806 

 at the mouth of the Columbia River, where Picea Sitchensis is abun- 

 dant, and who saw a specimen " forty-two feet in circumference, at 

 a point beyond the reach of an ordinary man. This trunk for the 

 distance of two hundred feet was destitute of limbs ; the tree was 

 perfectly sound, and at a moderate calculation its stature may be 

 estimated at three hundred feet" (Narrative of the Expedition under 

 Command of Lewis and Clark, ed. Coues, iil. 829). 



2 See ii. 90. 



3 Loudon, Arl). Brit. iv. 2321, f. 2232. 



4 See ii. 94. 



^ M'Laren, Trans. Scottish Arhoricultural Society, x. 212. — Web- 

 ster, Trans. Scottish Arhoricultural Society, xi. 57. — Dunn, Jour. R. 

 Hort. Soc. xiv. 84. — Hansen, Jour. R. Hort. Soc. xiv. 438 {Pinetum 

 Danicum). — J, G. Jack, Garden and Forest, vi. 14. See, also, K. 



Hartig. Forst.-Nat. Zeit. i. 428. 



^ On the shores of Puget Sound young trees often make leading 

 shoots from three to four feet in length ; and so vigorous is the 

 growth of this Spruce in the humid coast region of the north- 

 west that the lateral branchlets sometimes develop into small trees 



and stand erect on the branches of large individuals. Of three 

 trees measured by John Muir, at Wrangel, Alaska, one was seven 

 hundred and sixty-four years old, with a trunk five feet in diame- 

 ter ; the second was five hundred years old, with a trunk six feet 

 three inches in diameter ; and the third was three hundred and 

 eighty-five years old, with a trunk four feet in diameter. A tree 

 measured by him, which had grown on the edge of a meadow on the 

 Snoqualmie Kiver in Washington, was one hundred and eighty feet 

 high, with a trunk four feet six inches in diameter, and was two 

 hundred and forty years old. Another tree, also measured by him 

 near the city of Vancouver, in British Columbia, was only forty- 

 eight years old, but had a trunk three feet in diameter. Of two 

 trees examined by Gorman in Alaska (Pittonia, iii. 67), No. 1, cut 

 on the mainland, was one hundred and sixty feet tall, with a trunk 

 diameter of three feet eleven inches, and was two hundred and 

 seventy-seven years old, while No. 2, cut on Hassler Island, had a 

 trunk four feet and , half an inch in diameter fourteen feet above 

 the surface of the ground, and was four hundred and thirty-four 

 years old. The first had grown in dense woods, well protected 

 from the wind, and the second on a hillside exposed to fierce 

 northeast gales in autumn and winter. The heart of the latter was 

 thirty-two inches from the southwest side and only sixteen and 

 one half inches from the northeast side. 



