In the foot-hills of the southern part of the 

 state are a few trees of the Colorado White 

 Fir (A. concolor), with their exceedingly 

 whitened bark, leaves, and cones, otherwise 

 much like the White Fir of California, with 

 which it is classed by some authors. 



Last, as well as prettiest, of our firs let 

 us study for a moment the most singular of 

 all our trees, the Needle-cone Fir (A. ven- 

 usta), of the Santa Lucia Mountains, near the 

 south boundary line of Monterey County. It is 

 a tree with its limbs so short that the tree has 

 the appearance of a narrow pinnacle or column, 

 often fifty or more feet high. The cones are 

 oblong, three inches long, the bracts between 

 the scales terminating in strong, sharp needles 

 two inches long, which, curving downward, 

 inclose the cone in a net-like envelope. The 

 leaves, too, are out of the ordinary state, be- 

 ing very long two inches and one-eighth 

 inch wide, the largest fir leaves known. Very 

 singularly the locality of this fir was discov- 

 ered by the earliest explorer of this coast, 

 the indefatigable David Douglas, in 1830; but 

 so deeply secluded are they in the confusing 

 ramifications of the Coast Range, and so steep 

 almost inaccessible are the mountain cliffs 

 to which they cling, that few persons have 

 seen these wonderful trees, not above a dozen 

 persons all told, although their home is but 

 a few miles from the populous metropolis of 

 the Pacific Slope, and quite near our two uni- 

 versities, with their thousands of students. 



What might have been done at any time 

 all these years was developed last summer, 

 when a botanist of the University of Cali- 

 fornia explored the region thoroughly, and 

 discovered some four new groves, one of 

 them quite extensive, of this exceedingly lovely 

 tree. 



(52) 



