74 SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. BETULACES. 
inclosed during the winter in buds which are formed during the early summer and open in the spring ; 
they are from one third to nearly one half of an inch long and about one sixteenth of an inch thick, 
with dark red acute scales and bright red styles. The strobiles are raised on stout orange-colored 
peduncles sometimes nearly half an inch in length, and are ovate or oblong, from half an inch to almost 
an inch long and from one third to one half of an inch broad, with truncate scales much thickened 
toward the apex, and orbicular or obovate nuts surrounded by narrow membranaceous wings. 
Alnus Oregona ranges from Sitka,’ where it often clothes mountain sides to elevations of three 
thousand feet above the sea, southward through the islands and coast ranges of British Columbia,’ and 
through western Washington and Oregon and the canons of the California coast ranges to those of the 
Santa Inez Mountains near Santa Barbara. A common tree by the banks of streams in all this region, 
Alnus Oregona grows to its largest size in the neighborhood of Puget Sound, where it springs up on 
moist soil and forms a considerable part of the forests that cover the banks of streams. 
The wood of Alnus Oregona is light, soft, brittle and not strong, but close-grained and easily 
worked, with a satiny surface susceptible of receiving a beautiful polish; it is ight brown tinged with 
red, with thick nearly white sapwood, and contains broad distinct medullary rays. The specific gravity 
of the absolutely dry wood is 0.4813, a cubic foot weighing 29.99 pounds. In Washington and Oregon 
it is now largely used in the manufacture of furniture, and by the Indians of Alaska the trunks are 
hollowed into canoes.’ 
First described from specimens gathered in 1830 in Sitka by Russian collectors, the Oregon Alder 
had been found in 1805 on the banks of the lower Columbia River by Lewis and Clark.* 
1 Ledebour, F7. Ross. iii. 656. — Rothrock, Rep. Smithsonian * History of the Expedition under the Command of Lewis and 
Inst. 1867, 454 (Fl. Alaska). Clark, ed. Coues, ii. 689, 724, 749. 
2 G. M. Dawson, Can. Nat. n. ser. ix. 231. — Macoun, Cat. Can. In the Alder of the lower Columbia River of Lewis and Clark 
Pl. 437. the two arborescent species of the region are no doubt con- 
3 Meehan, Proc. Phil. Acad. 1884, 91. founded. 
EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE. 
Pirate CCCCLIV. Anus OrxEcona. 
. A flowering branch, natural size. 
Diagram of a staminate flower-cluster. 
Diagram of a pistillate flower-cluster. 
Scale of a staminate ament, rear view, with flowers, enlarged, 
A staminate flower, enlarged. 
. Pistillate flowers with their scale, front view, enlarged. 
- Vertical section of a pistillate flower, enlarged. 
. A fruiting branch, natural size. 
WCONAAR WY HE 
. Seale of a strobile, front view, with nutlets, enlarged. 
fob 
oO 
. An embryo, enlarged. 
—_ 
bb 
- A winter-bud and leaf-scar, enlarged. 
= 
bo 
- Diagram of a leaf-bud. 
