2 2 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and show a slight tendency to curl upwards in the direction of 

 the terminal bud which is, however, not concealed from view. 



(4) The Coast Forests. — The great forest region of the Pacific 

 Coast, where the Douglas fir attains its best development in 

 British Columbia, comprises that portion of the mainland which 

 lies westwards of the axis of the Cascade and Coast Mountains, 

 and extends as far northwards as the 51st parallel of latitude 

 (Knight Inlet), and the southern, central and eastern portions 

 of Vancouver Island. There are forests of the Douglas fir on 

 the coast north of the main Douglas fir forest region of British 

 Columbia, which is continuous with the great coastal forests of 

 Washington and Oregon, but they occupy isolated areas, where 

 the climatic conditions are more favourable to the tree than 

 those of the neighbouring regions. Such isolated fir forests are 

 to be met with as far north as the Gardiner Canal. 



In the main Douglas fir forest region of British Columbia 

 west of the Cascade and Coast Mountains, the Douglas fir and 

 Thuya gigantea — its chief associate — find the optimum conditions 

 for their growth and development. The Douglas fir frequently 

 attain 250 feet and upward in height and 20-30 feet in girth, 

 and Thtiya gigantea a height of 175 feet. Along with these 

 species are associated a number of other important trees, Sitka 

 spruce {Picea sitchensis), western hemlock {Tsuga heterophylla), 

 two silver firs {Abies grandis and Abies amabilis), and western 

 white pine {Finns monticola), which all attain a large size, but in 

 this region form a relatively small proportion of the forests as 

 compared with the Douglas fir and Thuya gigantea. 



The forests, however, are not uniformly of the same type 

 throughout the southern Coastal region of British Columbia. 

 Their composition and the size of the timber depend to some 

 extent on local factors, such as diversities in the topography, 

 soil conditions, and rainfall. In the two localities where I 

 collected cones, Hope arid Vancouver (Nanaimo and Bainbridge), 

 the conditions differed but slightly, as far as can be gathered 

 from the meteorological records, and yet such as they are these 

 differences are associated with corresponding differences in the 

 forest. The forests at Hope, although belonging to the Coast 

 forest type, are somewhat different from forests farther westwards, 

 and there is evidence to show that the natural agencies which 

 exercise such a powerful influence on the climatic conditions 

 east of the Cascade range, in some slight degree make their 



