THE DOUGLAS FIR 103 



and a half to four inches long, and an inch or more in 

 diameter and of a reddish-brown colour. The ovuli- 

 ferous scales are rounded, with slightly wavy margins, 

 but the most striking character is the bract-scale, 

 which is longer than the ovuliferous and is three- 

 lobed, the two lateral lobes diverging slightly and the 

 central one prolonged into a rigid acute awn. 

 This type of cone has been termed " feathered." The 

 true Hemlock Spruces (Tsuga) have smaller cones, 

 the bract-scales of which are not longer than the 

 ovuliferous ones. The seeds of Pseudotsuga are small 

 and winged. 



The resinous wood of the Douglas Spruce is largely 

 used in its native area for fuel as well as for all kinds 

 of carpentry, house-building, and engineering work. 

 It is excellently adapted for the lower masts, yards, 

 and bowsprits of sailing vessels, though inferior for 

 topmasts, which are much exposed to friction, to 

 Kauri Pine, or the Riga and Dantzic varieties of 

 Pinus sylves'tris. Puget Sound now exports it 

 largely to South America, Australia, the Sandwich 

 Islands, China and India, as well as to Great Britain. 

 Time has hardly as yet permitted an adequate test of 

 the durability of British-grown timber of this species. 

 Its much more rapid growth here suggests consider- 

 able inferiority as compared with the Oregon wood ; 

 and yet it appears to compare favourably with Larch 

 for such purposes as railway-sleepers. 



No exotic species of tree introduced within the 

 last hundred years has, perhaps, attracted so much 

 attention, from a utilitarian point of view, as the 

 Douglas Fir, and that not only in Britain but also 



