SOLITARES 



OTHER PITCH TREES 



The rest of the Pitch Trees of the Cone- 

 bearing family are peculiar and easily recog- 

 nized. The problem is greatly simplified at 

 the outset by the elimination of two genera 

 not found in California, except in cultivation, 

 the true Cedar (Cedrus) and the true Larch 

 or Tamarack (Larix). 



The other groups, the Spruces and Firs, 

 are represented in abundance in America, and 

 especially in California, by trees often of great 

 size and value. The leaves of both are soli- 

 tary and short ; the cones with thin, flat, un- 

 armed scales. 



FEATHER-CONE SPRUCES 



If one should be traveling in the mountains 

 of California, and should come upon trees 

 with long, gracefully declining branches, bear- 

 ing on the outer margins numerous small 

 brown cones, which when open are about the 

 size of a hen's egg, and decorated with long, 

 flat, three-toothed, feather-like bracts, protrud- 

 ing a half inch from between the scales, he 

 might be sure that he was in the regal pres- 

 ence of a Douglas Spruce (Pseudotsuga taxi- 

 folia). Forming the greater part of the dense 

 forest about Puget Sound, where they become 

 350 to 450 feet high the tallest trees in the 

 world they spread down along the Rocky 

 Mountains and the ranges of California to 

 Arizona. Douglas Spruce (improperly called 

 by lumber dealers "Oregon Pine" and "Red 

 Fir") constitutes the major part of the out- 

 put of the scores of great mills in the north- 

 west, now the richest lumber region of the 

 world. No tree is more utilized for all pur- 



(43) 



