PICEA SITCHENSIS. 453 



the base by numerous involucral bracts. Cones cylindric, obtns.-, 

 2-5 3-5 inches long and 1-25 inch in diameter, often curved before 

 falling ; scales ovate-elliptic, 0-75 inch long, irregularly denticulate 

 beyond the middle ; bract awl-shaped, about one-half as long as the 

 scale. 



Picea sitchensis, Carriers, Traite Conif. ed. I. 260 (1855). Engelmaim in Brewer 

 and Watson's Bot. Califor. II. 122. Macoun, Cat. Canad. Plants, 470. Mayr, 

 Wald. Nordamer. 338. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 390, with figs. Masters in Joum. 

 R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 224. Sargent, Silva N. Anier. XII. 55, t. 602. 



P. Menziesii, Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 318 (1867). Masters in Gard. 

 Chron. XXV. (1886), p. 728, with figs. 



Abies Menziesii. Lindley in Penny Cycl. I. 32 (1833). London, Arb. et Frut. 

 Brit. IV. 2321, with fig. Forbes, Pinet. Woburn, 93, t. 32. Gordon Pinet 

 ed. II. 12. 



Pinus sitchensis, Bongard, Veg. de Sitcha, 46 (1832). Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 

 123 (1847). 



P. Menziesii, Douglas ex Lambert, Genus Finns, ed. II. Vol. III. 161 (1837) 

 Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 418. 



Eng. Menzies' Spruce. Amer. Tideland Spruce. Germ. Sitka-Fichte. 



Picea sitchensis is confined to a narrow belt extending many 

 hundreds of miles along the Pacific coast of north-west America 

 from Alaska near the 60th parallel of north latitude southwards to 

 Cape Mendocino in California, rarely spreading inland more than 

 fifty miles, in places forming a continuous forest of considerable 

 extent, elsewhere associated with Abietia Douglasii, Tsuga Albertiana 

 and Thuia gigantea. It attains its greatest development in the littoral 

 districts of Washington and Oregon where it becomes the largest of 

 all Spruce Firs and the most important timber tree of the region.* 

 Further north under the altered conditions of climate, its dimensions 

 -are considerably diminished until it is reduced to a low shrub at 

 its extreme northern limit. The wood is light, soft, straight-grained, 

 compact but not strong, and of a light brown colour tinged with red. 

 In the coast region of Oregon and Washington it is used for well-nigh 

 every purpose for which timber is in request, not only for house 

 building and out-of-door carpentry generally, but also for boat 

 building, cooperage and household utensils ; and further north, where 

 the trees are much smaller, it is not less serviceable to the inhabitants, 

 both settlers and Indians. 



In Great Britain the growth and aspect of Picea sitchensis are much 

 influenced by the soil and situation in which it is planted. It does not 

 thrive in. light dry soils whether near or away from the sea coast ; in 

 such places in very dry seasons it loses all its foliage older than that of 

 the current year and has a denuded appearance ; in a retentive loam and 

 even in constantly wet ground it grows rapidly into a handsome well- 



* No tree in the American forest grows with greater vigour or shows stronger evidences 

 of vitality, and there are few more impressive and beautiful objects in the forests of 

 temperate North America than one of these mighty Spruce trees with its spire-like head 

 raised high above its broad base of widely sweeping and gracefully upturned branches 



r branc" " 



resting on the surface of the ground ; . its slender branchlets loaded witli cones nodding to 

 the slightest breeze, and its leaves now silvery white, now dark and lustrous, shimmering 

 in the sunlight. Silva of North America, Vol. XII. p. 57. 



