174. ABIES MAGNIFICA CALIFORNIA RED FIR, SHASTA FIR. 55 



on the tops of the branchlets. Cones erect, largest of the genus, 6 to 8 in. long, 

 and from 2^ to 3 thick, purplish-brown with lanceolate, acuminate bracts shorter 

 and mostly concealed beneath the wide scales, which are about 1| in. in length; 

 seeds slender with very oblique, obovate-cuneate wing; coytledons 8-10. 



Var. Shastensis, Lemmon, Shasta Fir, is a form found high on Mt. Shasta and 

 neighboring mountains, having cone-bracts protruding from \ to 1 in. between 

 the scales, "rendering the large purple cones thus decked out with tasseled 

 fringes, a most beautiful object," as Prof. J. G. Lemmon aptly describes them. 



Var. Xantliocarpa, Lemmon, the Golden Fir, of the high sub-alpine regions 

 from Mt. Shasta to Mt. Whitney, is somewhat smaller than the typical tree, with 

 cones also smaller, 4-5 in. in length and of a golden color while growing. 



(The specific name, magnified, is the Latin for magnificent and fitly describes 

 the stature of the tree.) 



The largest of the Firs, this beautiful tree sometimes towers to the 

 height of 250 ft. (75 m.) or higher, with a trunk nearly, if not quite, 

 10 ft. (3 m.) in diameter, having a thick reddish-brown bark, weather- 

 ing to a grayish brown outside, with large, firm, scaly ridges. The 

 great size of this tree, with its strictly regular pyramidal form of 

 growth, the whorls of branches regularly decreasing in length from 

 lowest to summit, make it one of the most beautiful and majestic of 

 the cone-bearing trees. 



HA*BITAT. California, from Mt. Shasta, where between 4,900 and 

 8,000 ft. it forms extensive forests, southward along the western slopes 

 of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Kern County, where it is found at 

 about 10,000 ft. elevation. It is most abundant northward. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood light, soft, not strong, rather close- 

 grained, compact, durable in contact with the soil and of a very light, 

 reddish-brown color, with sap-wood lighter. Specific Gravity, 

 0.4701; Percentage of Ash, 0.30; Relative Approximate Fuel 

 Value, 0.4687; Coefficient of Elasticity, 66220; Modulus of 

 Rupture, 701 ; Resistance to Longitudinal Pressure, 435 ; Resistance 

 to Indentation, 96; Weight of a Cubic Foot in Pounds, 29.30. 



USES. The durability of this wood in contact with the soil makes 

 it valuable for bridge timbers, etc. It is also manufactured into lum- 

 ber for general construction purposes, and largely used for fuel. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES are not recorded of this species. 



ENDOGENOUS OR MONOCOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS. 



Flowering plants, in the stems of which the woody fiber and vessels are irregu- 

 larly imbedded in bundles in cellular tissue (not in annual layers). The leaves 

 are mostly parallel-veined, sheathing at the base, alternate or scattered, not 

 toothed and rarely separating by an articulation. First leaf of the embryo (coty- 

 ledon) single and 'the parts of the flower generally in threes. 



ORDER LILIACE JE : LILY FAMILY. 



Flowers regular, perfect and symmetrical; perianth (sepals and petals together, 

 three of each), six-parted or divided: stamens as many as its divisions and oppo- 

 site them (in one instance four), with 2-celled anthers, ovaries superior, usually 



