An interesting feature of this tree, which is the national tree of Japan, is 

 its antiquity. Its lineage, like that of our Sequoias, can be traced to a very 

 remote geological period In Japan it forms extensive forests towering above 

 undergrowing ferns, mosses, and lichens as do our redwoods. 



DOUGLAS FIR 



Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) derives its formidable generic name, 

 which means "false hemlock," from a combination of a Greek with a Japanese 

 word. The name indicates its relation with the hemlocks, but it has botanical 

 differences which caused it to be classified as a distinct genus. This tree goes 

 under the name of red fir, Oregon pine, and Douglas spruce, but the commonly 

 accepted name among foresters is Douglas fir. It was collected in 1826 by 

 David Douglas, a Scottish botanist who was sent to the United States as a 

 collector by the Royal Horticultural Society. Few men are commemorated 

 by a more impressive monument since Douglas fir is one of the most im- 

 portant timber trees in the world. It grows throughout the Pacific Coast 

 region and the Rocky Mountains from British Columbia to northwestern 

 Texas, Mexico and the mountains of California, a range of over 2000 miles 

 from north to south and nearly 1000 miles from east to west. 



With the exception of redwood, no other tree of our continent attains 

 larger size. The tallest Douglas fir on record has a height of 380 feet. Trees 

 fifteen feet in diameter are not uncommon and single trees have been cut that 

 scaled 60,000 feet, board measure. On the lowlands of the north Pacific Coast 

 the trees stand close together, with trunks forming cylindrical columns as 

 straight as arrows and almost without branches for 200 feet. A flagstaff now 

 in the Kew Gardens in England came from a tree felled in British Columbia. 

 It is 159 feet long and tapers from a diameter of twenty-two inches to one of 

 eight inches. 



Douglas fir is readily distinguished from all other native cone-bearing 

 trees by the feathered appearance of the cones which is due to flexible bracts 

 that extend beyond the cone scales. The leaves are blunt at the point and soft 

 and flat with tiny stems which permit them to arrange themselves, feather 

 like, on opposite sides of the branches. In reality they are spaced all the way 

 around the branch, and the successive leaves form spirals. 



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