8 FOREST TREES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



land spruce is replaced by an allied species of the interior region. The widely-distributed yellow pine (Pinus 

 ponderosa ), barely represented in the northern portions of the immediate Coast Forest, becomes east of the mountains 

 one of the most important and characteristic elements of the forest. The Coast Forest south of the forty-third degree 

 of latitude changes in composition. The tide-land spruce, the hemlock, and the Thuya are gradually replaced by 

 more southern species. The sugar pine (P. Lambertiana) here first appears. The California laurel (Umbellularia) 

 covers with magnificent growth the broad river bottoms. The Libocedrus, several oaks, and the chinquapin here reach 

 the northern limits of their distribution. The change from the northern to the southern forest is marked by the 

 appearance of the Port Orford cedar (Chamcccyparis Laicsoniana), adding variety and value to the forests of the 

 southern Oregon coast. Farther south, near the northern boundary of California, the redwood forests (Sequoia) appear. 



The Coast Forest of California will be most conveniently discussed under three subdivisions : the forest of the 

 Coast Eauge, the forest of the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, which, toward the northern boundary of the 

 etate, extends to the coast, covering the mass of mountains which here unite the Sierra Nevada and the Coast 

 Bange ; and, third, the open forest of the long, narrow valleys lying -between the Coast Eange and the Sierra 

 Nevada, south of this northern connection. The important feature of the Coast Eange, as far south as the thirty- 

 seventh degree of latitude, is the belt of redwood occupying an irregular, interrupted strip of territory facing the 

 ocean, and hardly exceeding thirty miles in width at the points of its greatest development. The heaviest growth 

 of the redwood forest occurs north of the bay of San Francisco, and here, along the slopes and bottom of the narrow 

 carious of the western slope of the Coast Eange, the maximum productive capacity of the forest is reached. No 

 other forest of similar extent equals in the amount of material which they contain the groups of redwood scattered 

 along the coast of northern California. The red fir reaches, in the California Coast Eange, a size and value only 

 surpassed in the more northern forests of the coast; the yellow pine is an important tree in the northern 

 portions of this region, and here flourish other species of the genus endemic to this region. The forest of the Coast 

 Eange is marked by the presence within its limits of several species of singularly restricted distribution. Gupressus 

 macrocarpa and Pinus insignis are confined to a few isolated groves upon the shores of the bay of Monterey ; Abies 

 bracteata occupies three or four canons high up in the Santa Lucia mountains; it is found nowhere else ; and Pinus 

 Torreyana, the most local arborescent species of North America, has been detected only in one or two small groups 

 upon the sand-dunes just north of the bay of San Diego. The characteristic forest of the Coast Eange is checked 

 from farther southern development, a little below the thirty-fifth parallel, by insufficient moisture ; the scanty 

 forests which clothe the high declivities of the Coast Eange farther south belong in composition to the Sierra 

 forests. 



The heavy forest which covers the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, a forest only surpassed in density by 

 the redwood belt of the coast and the fir forest of Puget sound, occupies, in its greatest development, a belt 

 situated between 4,000 and 8,000 feet elevation. This forest belt extends from about the base of mount Shasta at 

 the north to the thirty-fifth parallel ; farther south it diminishes in density and disappears upon the southern 

 ridges of the Coast Eange just north of the southern boundary of California. Its greatest width occurs in northern 

 California, where to the south of mount Shasta the Sierra system is broken down into a broad mass of low ridges 

 and peaks. The characteristic species of this forest is the great sugar pine (P. Lambertiana), which here reaches 

 its greatest development and value, and gives unsurpassed beauty to this mountain forest. With the sugar pine 

 are associated the red fir, the yellow pine, two noble Abies, the Libocedrus; and, toward the central part of the 

 state, the great Sequoia, appearing first in small isolated groups, and then, farther south, near the headwaters of 

 Kern river, in a narrow belt extending more or less continuously for several miles. This heavy forest of the 

 Sierras, unlike the forest which farther north covers the western flanks of the Cascade Eauge, is almost destitute 

 of undergrowth and young trees. It shows the influence of a warm climate and unevenly distributed rainfall 

 upon forest growth. The trees, often remote from one another, have attained an enormous size, but they have 

 grown slowly. Above this belt the Sierra forest stretches upward to the limits of tree growth. It is here 

 subalpine and alpine in character aud of little economic value. Different pines and firs, the mountain hemlock, 

 and the western juniper are scattered in open stretches of forest upon the high ridges of the Sierras. The 

 forest below the belt of heavy growth gradually becomes more open. Individual trees are smaller, while the 

 number of species increases. The small pines of the upper foot-hills are mingled with oaks in considerable 

 variety. These gradually increase in number. Pines are less frequent and finally disappear. 



The forest of the valleys is composed of oaks, the individuals often widely scattered and of great size, but 

 nowhere forming a continuous, compact growth. The Coast Forest of the Pacific region, unsurpassed in density, 

 is composed of a comparatively small number of species, often attaining enormous size. It presents the same 

 general features throughout its entire extent, except as modified by the climatic conditions of the regions which it 

 covers. The species which compose this forest range through nearly 26 degrees of latitude, or northern species, 

 are replaced in the south by closely allied forms ; and, as in the Atlantic region, the southern species far exceed 

 in number those peculiar to the north. 



The Interior Forest extends from the southern limits of the northern subarctic forest to the plateau of 

 northern Mexico ; it occupies the entire region between the eastern limits of the Pacific Coast Forest and the extreme 

 western limits of the Atlantic region. The forests of this entire region, as compared with the forests east and 

 west of it, are stunted and remarkable in their poverty of composition. They are confined to the high slopes 



