52 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



This beautiful and stately tree sometimes attains the height of 300 

 ft. (90 m.) with short and sometimes pendulous branches forming a 

 narrow irregular pyramidal head. It has a straight, columnar trunk, 

 from 4 to 6 ft. (1.50 in.) in diameter, vested in a dark-brown bark, 

 fissured lengthwise into quite regular, firm ridges which break away 

 in thick, irregular fragments. The bark of younger trunks is much 

 thinner, of a pale-gray color and bearing numerous resin-blisters. 



HABITAT. rFrom British Columbia southward to Mendocino Co., 

 Cal., and eastward to the western slopes of the continental divide in 

 Montana, but in southern Oregon and northern California not extend- 

 ing many miles inland from the coast. It attains its greatest dimen- 

 sions in the alluvial bottom-lands near the coast, but is found along 

 streams and on moist slopes to an altitude of from 5,000 to 7,000 ft., 

 never anywhere forming exclusive forests but scattered among the 

 Giant Cedars, Douglas and Tideland Spruces, Redwoods and other 

 trees of its range. 



PHYSICAL PROPERTIES. Wood very light, soft, not strong or dur- 

 able, coarse grainj easily worked and yielding a very smooth, satiny 

 surface. It is of a very light, yellowish-brown color, with lighter 

 sap-wood. Specific Gravity, 0.3545; Percentage of 'Ash, .49 ; Rela- 

 tive Approximate Fuel Value, 0.3528; Coefficient of Elasticity, 

 95838; Modulus of Rupture, 494; Resistance to Longitudinal Pres- 

 sure, 391; Resistance to Indentation: 51; Weight of a Cubic Fool in 

 Pounds, 22.09.' 



USES. The wood of this tree is occasionally manufactured into 

 lumber for interior finishing, boxes, casks, etc., but hitherto has been 

 little valued as compared with the Douglas Spruce, Giant Cedar, etc., 

 which grow in abundance with it. 



MEDICINAL PROPERTIES so far as known, are only those of the 

 balsam which may be gathered from the blisters in the bark of the 

 younger trunks. 



225. ABIES NOBILIS, LIXDL. 

 NOBLE FIR, OREGON "LARCH." 



Ger., Erlauchte Tanne; Fr., Sapin noble; Sp., Aljeto noble. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: Leaves glaucous blue-green, on the fertile upper 

 branches thick, incurved, erect, nearly equally 4-sided and crowded upon the 

 upper side of the branchlets, those of the under side by ft twist and curve at their 

 bases, with a distinct central groove above, keeled beneath, stomatiferous both 

 sides, with fibrovasrular bundle central and resin ducts close to th? epidermis of 

 the lower side, the leaves of the sterile branches flattish, slightly notched at apex, 

 from 1-U in. long, less crowded than thS" of the fertile branchlets; winter buds 

 about -J in. long, with acute reddish brown scales, and thickly resin-coated; 



