Pseudotsuga. CONIFERS. 



* * Leaves more or less quadrangular, short and curved upward. 

 *- Bracts exsert. 



4. A. nobilis, Lindl. A magnificent tree, 200 feet high, with thick cinnamon- 

 brown bark (red inside) : leaves rigid, curved upward, covering the upper side of the 

 branchlets, glaucous and stomatose and keeled both on the upper and under side, 

 acute or obtuse, about an inch long, only on the youngest trees or lowest branches 

 longer (1 inches), flatter, slightly grooved and somewhat 2-ranked : cones cylin- 

 drical-oblong, thick, 6 to 9 inches long by 2^ or 3 inches broad, obtuse, almost 

 covered by the exsert reflexed cuneate cuspidate bracts ; scales comparatively nar- 

 row (1| inches wide, by an inch long or more) : seeds slender, with a cuneate-trian- 

 gular somewhat retuse wing : embryo with 7 or 8 cotyledons. Penny Cyc. i. 30 ; 

 Nutt. 1. c., t. 117 ; Engelru. 1. c. 601. Pinus nobilis, DougL ; Parlat. Picea nobilis, 

 Loud. 1. c. 2342, h'g. ; Newberry, 1. c. 49, .h'g. 17. 



The "Red Fir" of Northern California, forming large forests about the base of Mount Shasta, 

 at 6,000 to 8,000 feet altitude, and extending through the Cascade Mountains to the Columbia 

 River. The timber is said to be better than that of other firs. Forms are found with almost 

 enclosed bracts, often accompanying the others, which may connect with the following species. 



-i- H- Bracts enclosed. 



5. A. magnifica, Murray. Similar to the last, even more than 200 feet high 

 and 8 to 10 feet in diameter, with the same kind of thick red-brown bark, and with 

 similar very rigid foliage, but the leaves never grooved nor notched even on the 

 young trees, on older branches shorter and thicker, so that they are mostly only a 

 fourth wider than thick or even perfectly square, and often only 6 to 9 lines long : 

 cones 6 to 8 inches long, 2| to 3^ inches thick, purplish brown ; bracts lanceo- 

 late, acuminate, shorter than the very wide scales, which are 1| to 1| inches broad 

 by scarcely an inch high : seeds slender, the wing broader, very obliquely obovate- 

 cuneate : cotyledons 8 to 10. Proc. Hort. Soc. iii. 318 ; Engelm. 1. c. 601. Abies 

 amabilis of California!! botanists. 



The "Red Fir" of the higher Sierras is not rare at an altitude of 7,000 to 10,000 feet, but forms 

 no forests by itself. Easily distinguished from the last by the enclosed bracts. Forms, however, 

 are said to "occur (Mount Sillinian, Brewer) with exsert bracts, and it remains to be seen whether 

 the slight differences in the leaves, scales and seeds will suffice to keep the species separate. 



8. PSEUDOTSUGA, Carriere. DOUGLAS SPRUCE. 



Flowers from the axils of last year's leaves. Male flowers an oblong or subcylin- 

 drical stamineal column, surrounded and partly enclosed by numerous conspicuous 

 orbicular bud-scales ; commissure of the anthers terminating in a short spur, the cells 

 opening obliquely by one continuous slit : pollen-grains ovate-subglobose. Female 

 flowers with the scales much shorter than the broadly linear acutely 2-lobed and long- 

 pointed or aristate bracts. Cones maturing in the first year, with persistent scales 

 and exsert bracts. Seeds without resin-vesicles, the wing at last breaking off. 

 Cotyledons 6 to 12. A very large tree, at first pyramidal and spruce-like, often at 

 last more spreading, with yellow or reddish rather coarse but very valuable wood, 

 which is distinguished from that of all the allied conifers by the abundance of 

 spirally marked wood-cells. Leaves flat, distinctly petioled, somewhat 2-ranked by 

 a twist at the base, stomatose only on the lower surface, with two lateral resin-ducts 

 close to the epidermis of the under side, leaving on the branchlets scarcely prominent 

 transversely oval scars. Conif. 2 ed. 256. Pinus, sect. Tsuga, Endl., in part; 

 Parlat. Abies, Lindl., in part. 



A single species, which extends through the Rocky Mountains and mountains of California, 

 from Oregon far into Mexico, and is in Oregon the largest and most important timber-tree. 



