1196 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



to sea-level, though farther north, in Queen Charlotte Sound and Islands, it becomes 

 one of the most common trees. In Vancouver Island 1 I did not see it, as it grows 

 only at a higher elevation and farther north than I reached, and as yet forms no 

 part of the produce of the lumber mills. 



In Washington it is found only in small areas, and is not abundant. Plummer 

 says 2 that it is found between 2600 and 7400 ft., generally associated with mountain 

 fir, pine, and hemlock, preferring shady valleys and basins, and not exceeding 

 100 ft. high by 3 ft. in diameter. But I found on the road from Longmire Springs 

 to Paradise Valley, on Mt. Rainier, a tree of remarkable size, 108 ft. high and 

 17 ft. 10 in. in girth ; above the point at six ft. where the tree forks just below 

 this, it measured no less than 26 ft. in girth, and seemed quite sound. This 

 appears to be the largest girth recorded for this species. Plate 306 from a photo- 

 graph taken in this district, and Plate 307 from photographs taken in Washington, 

 give a good idea of the habit of the tree in its native forests. 



In Washington it crosses the Cascade mountains to the valleys running east, 

 where Mr. Gorman found it from 2100 ft. on the Stehakin, to 6000 ft. about the 

 headwaters of the Methow and Rattlesnake Creek. He says : 3 " Of all the trees 

 of this region the Alaska cedar is the most pronounced lover of moisture, and on 

 this account it is not only confined to the moist valleys, but to those only which 

 head in or about the main divide of the Cascade range. The finest specimens 

 are in the Stehakin and Agnes Creek, where it ranges from 50 to 75 ft. high and 

 10 to 25 in. diameter. About its upper limits, especially in Horseshoe Basin, 

 the tree was quite alpine in habit and very stunted in growth, but even the most 

 stunted trees, some of which did not exceed 10 ft. in height, were found to be fairly 

 well covered with the typical small barbed cones, which take three years to mature 

 their seed. 4 The bark of the young tree is somewhat red and shreddy, becoming 

 checked and grey with age, when it bears a strong resemblance to that of Thuja 

 plicata ; but the mature tree, unlike the latter, continues sound at the core." 



History and Cultivation 



The yellow cedar was discovered in 1793 by Archibald Menzies, who accom- 

 panied Vancouver, as surgeon and naturalist, in his voyage round the world. His 

 specimens, gathered on the shore of Nootka Sound, were described by Don in 

 1824. It was first cultivated about 1850 in the St. Petersburgh Botanic Garden, 



1 According to Butters, in Poste/sia, 199 (1906), it is common in the south-eastern part of Vancouver Island, at eleva- 

 tions above 1000 feet. Anderson, in Canad. Forestry Convention Report, 1906, p. 71, says the nearest point to Victoria 

 where trees are found is on the Nanaimo River and on Mt. Benson ; and adds that it grows in large quantities in the interior 

 of the island, and extends to the snow-line. 



8 21*/ Ann. Rep. Geo/. Survey, Mount Rainier Forest Reserve (1 900). 



3 19M Ann. Rep. Geo/. Survey, Washington Forest Reserve, 339 (1899). 



4 Pinchot, in U.S. Sy/vica/ Leaflet, 12, p. 3 (1908), says: "Flowering takes place in April, and the seeds mature and 

 are scattered in the early autumn of the same season. They are distributed by the wind, and though they will germinate on 

 moss and decaying wood, mineral soil is preferred as a seed-bed." Sargent also states that the fruit ripens in the first season. 

 Both, however, in America and in England, the seeds do not ripen till late in the spring of the second year, and the cones 

 usually do not open until the autumn following. 



