100 ABIES, OR SILVER FIRS 



in 1862. The differences between the two, and the 

 verification of their differences, has been the text 

 of many a debate in the fraternity of tree lovers. 



Professor Augustine Henry bids us take note of 

 these, their differences. The young twigs of the 

 Oregon are " usually " downy, while those of the 

 Colorado are smooth. The foliage of the Oregon is 

 pale green, in that of the Colorado the upper surface 

 of the needles is bluish. 



The U.S.A. Department of Agriculture, in its Forest 

 Service Contribution, goes one better. It bids us 

 take note that while the Neptune's trident-shaped 

 bracts on the cones of the Oregon more or less point 

 straight up the length of the cone, those upon the 

 Colorado variety are reflexed. If this is proved to 

 be a universal practice on behalf of the two varieties, 

 it is an '* open sesame " to the mysteries of their 

 botanical disassociation. 



With the exception of this last remark, we have 

 been only trying to review some English expressed 

 views upon the subject of the two brother Douglases. 

 We will now try to express a few American ideas 

 on the subject of a tree that maybe is destined to 

 play a great part in the history of the British timber 

 industry. 



The first discovered of the two is generally known 

 as the Oregon Douglas, though its domain ranges upon 

 long Pacific slopes, from Vancouver Island to San 

 Francisco, while the later-discovered one hails from 

 farther east, among the ranges of the Rockies, and is 

 generally referred to as the Colorado species. What 

 America has to say upon the question of the wood 

 value should be of interest to us. 



The Oregon Douglas represents the yellow narrow- 

 ringed, and the Colorado the red and wide-ringed — 

 although the slower grower of the two — wood of the 

 lumberman ; and it is the yellow, narrow-ringed timber 



