ABIES. 



221 



abundant in the North Temperate Zone. Timber and turpentine are 

 their special products.* 



The Douglass Fir {Abies Douglcmz) of Oregon, and the Red wood 

 {Sequoia scmpei'virens) of California, are frequently 12 feet in diameter 

 and 200 feet high. The Lambert Pine (P. Lnmhertiana) of California, 

 a tree of faultless symmetry, is often 12 feet in diiimeter and 800 feet 



high. But over all towers the Giant 



Cedar of the Sierras [Sequoia gignn- 



tea). One grove in Calaveras County contains 90 so-cnllod "Big 



Trees," measuring from 20 to 36 feet in diameter and 350 in altitude ! f 



* The wood of the Pines, Cedars, and of the Conifers generally, is remarkably dic- 

 tinguished hy rows of circular disks which under the microscope appcjir like pearls 

 bedeckinj; each wood-coll. This form, called jntted lismte. has often been detected 

 in the fossiN of bituminous coal. tliu< revealing the oriu'in of that useful mineral 



t Such is the perfect symmetry of these dgantic lre<'s iliat the spectator finds it 

 flifljcult to realize (heir enormous proportions; " If," says Whiiiu'v. '• ..ne r<tnlil be 



