152 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA 



gions where alone it is found. After a grove has 

 been destroyed, the ground is at once sown lavishly 

 with all the seeds ripened during its whole life, 

 which seem to have been carefully held in store with 

 reference to such a calamity. Then a young grove 

 immediately springs up, giving beauty for ashes. 



SUGAR PINE 



(Pinus Lambertlana) 



THIS is the noblest pine yet discovered, surpass 

 ing all others not merely in size but also in kingly 

 beauty and majesty. 



It towers sublimely from every ridge and canon 

 of the range, at an elevation of from three to seven 

 thousand feet above the sea, attaining most perfect 

 development at a height of about 5000 feet. 



Full-grown specimens are commonly about 220 

 feet high, and from six to eight feet in diameter 

 near the ground, though some grand old patriarch 

 is occasionally met that has enjoyed five or six cen 

 turies of storms, and attained a thickness of ten or 

 even twelve feet, living on undecayed, sweet and 

 fresh in every fiber. 



In southern Oregon, where it was first discovered 

 by David Douglas, on the head waters of the 

 Umpqua, it attains still grander dimensions, one 

 specimen having been measured that was 245 feet 

 high, and over eighteen feet in diameter three feet 

 from the ground. The discoverer was the Douglas 

 for whom the noble Douglas Spruce is named, and 

 many other plants which will keep his memory 



