PSEUDOTSUGA 23 



Abies concolor Lindley and Gordon 1850 



A west American species with stout bluish leaves 50-75 mm. long and 

 about 2 mm. wide is sometimes planted in Minnesota, but at least in the 

 vicinity of Minneapolis 'it is not hardy and the upper branches are often 

 killed back in severe winters, keeping it in the form of a low bush. 



Pseudotsuga Carriere 1867 Douglas Fir 

 (Gr. p s e u d e s, false, Japanese, tsuga, hemlock.) 



Evergreen trees, trunk straight, running to the top of the tree, 

 branches horizontal, irregularly whorled ; leaves needle-like but flat and 

 blunt, soft, sessile or slightly stalked, scattered, borne in many rows, re- 

 maining on the tree for several years and when they fall leaving the bark 

 almost smooth or with slightly raised oval scars; buds scaly not resinous; 

 flowers in spring monoecious, the staminate borne in the axils of last 

 year's leaves, consisting of an axis, bare at the base and covered above 

 with the numerous stamens, stamens with a spur-like tip, pollen sacs 

 opening obliquely ; pistillate cones terminal or axillary, pendent at ma- 

 turity, the bracts long, conspicuous, cleft at the summit into three lobes, 

 cones ripening in the autumn of the first year, opening to discharge the 

 seeds and finally falling entire from the tree ; seed winged, not resinous. 



Only 3 species, one native of southern California, one of Japan, and 

 the following species widely distributed through western North America. 



Pseudotsuga taxifolia (Lambert) Brit ton 1889 Douglas Fir, 



Douglas Spruce. 



Ps. mucronata (Rafinesque) Sud worth 1895 



Ps. Douglasii (Lindley) Carriere 1867 



In Minnesota seldom exceeding 12 m. (40 ft.) in height (on the 

 Pacific coast sometimes 80 m. high), trunk straight, running to the crown 

 of the tree, branches horizontal, bark in young trees grayish, smooth, 

 often with a few resin blisters resembling that of the balsam fir, in 

 older trees becoming rough and brown and in old trees in their native 

 habitat very thick, deeply fissured and falling off in large scales ; buds 

 brown, sharp pointed, not resinous, covered with numerous papery scales; 

 leaves fragrant, flat, blunt and soft, arranged all about the twigs, or 

 twisted into an apparently two-ranked arrangement ; cones oval-cylindri- 

 cal, pendulous, when ripe woody, 4-8 cm. long : taxifolia, yew- 

 leaved. 



