BOTANY. 359 



Coulter's pine (Pinus coulterii) grows in the Santa Lucia 

 Mountains. It reaches a height of one hundred feet, and has 

 a trunk three feet through. Its branches are large and spread- 

 ing, the leaves a foot long, and pale sea-green in color ; the 

 cones seventeen inches long, seven inches through, and like a 

 sugar-loaf in shape. 



The twisted pine (Pinus contorta) is found in the northern 

 part of the State. The leaves are yellowish green in color, 

 about two inches long, and they grow in pairs. The tree 

 does not exceed sixty feet in height. 



284. Firs. The red fir, or Douglas spruce, (Abies doug- 

 lasii) is a tree of very large size, growing to be three hundred 

 feet high, and ten feet thick in the trunk. It is, as Dr. New- 

 berry says, " one of the grandest of the group of giants which 

 combine to form the forests of the West." The wood is strong, 

 but course and uneven in grain ; the layers of each year's 

 growth being soft on one side, and very hard on the other. 

 The timber is much used for rough work on houses, and for 

 ship-building. The tree grows in dense forests on the Sierra 

 Nevada and Cascade Mountains, from 35 to 49, and near 

 the coast north of 39. 



The yellow fir (Abies pattonii) bears a close resemblance 

 to the red fir, and the two trees are usually found in company 

 with each other. 



The black fir (Abies menziesii) is smaller, and of little 

 value. 



The Abies bracheata (Santa Lucia fir) grows in the Santa 

 Lucia Mountains. The height is about one hundred feet, the 

 shape a perfect cone, the lowest branches resting on the 

 ground. The tree produces a resin used by the Catholic 

 priests for incense. 



The Western balsam-fir, (Picea grandis) or white fir, at- 

 tains a height of one hundred and fifty feet, and a diameter 

 of seven feet in the trunk. The bark on the trunks of the 

 young trees contains numerous cysts full of the resinous fluid 

 called the balsam of fir. 



