1902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION. 



193 



As a striking example of how rapidly 

 the relations of these reserves with the 

 surrounding people are multiplying, it 

 may be stated that while in the year 

 1900-1901 there were but ten cases of 

 ' ' free- use ' ' applications for timber in the 

 I,ewis and Clarke Reserve, there were 

 over three hundred such cases attended 

 to from Jul}' I, 1901, to March 31, 1902. 

 In the same way the cases of sales of 

 timber are steadily and rapidly increas- 

 ing. The possible magnitude of the 



business of these reserves may be in- 

 ferred from the fact that the annual 

 growth of timber over these areas 

 amounts to at least two billion feet, 

 that enough grass is produced to war- 

 rant at the present day the pasturing 

 of over a million head of domestic 

 animals, and that the mineral wealth 

 largely dependent for its exploitation 

 on these reserve forests, though reck- 

 oned by millions, has ' ' hardly been 

 scratched." 



A NOTABLE CALIFORNIA FIR. 



.ABIES VENUSTA, KOCH. 

 By W11.LIAM RussEL Dudley, 



Professor of Botany, Leland Stanford, Jr., University. 



THIS remarkable representative of 

 the Fir type of the Conifer cc is 

 confined to the western part of Monterey 

 County, California, in a portion of those 

 rough, scarcely explored ranges of gov- 

 ernment lands known as the Santa 

 Lucia* Mountains. When noticed at 

 all by the local residents it is called the 

 "Silver Fir" or "Silver Pine," and to 

 distinguish it from the Silver Fir of the 

 Sierras {Abies magnifica), with which 

 some of the inhalDitants confuse it, it 

 should be called the ' ' Santa Lucia Silver 

 Fir." 



It is a tree of singular beauty. Its 

 foliage resembles that of Torreya, dark 

 green above when mature; its leaves are 

 coriaceous, shining, and exceedingly 

 prickly pointed. The tree is not large, 

 rarely over 75 or 100 feet in height, but 

 its outline is like no other conifer. Its 

 very long, slender spire and its swelling 

 outline toward the base, abruptly con- 

 tracting near the ground ; its situation, 

 usuall}^ springing out above some bold 

 rock on a river bank or inaccessible 

 mountain crag ; its foliage whitish be- 

 low and dark green above, render it a 

 most striking object. 



It is like a fir only in the character 



* " Lucia '" is pronounced Lu-see-ah, the ac- 

 cent on the second syllable the u as "(7C," the 

 r soft. 



of its erect cones on the upper fertile 

 branches, and it surel}' has had a differ- 

 ent line of descent from any of the other . 

 species of Abies. It is the onh^ living 

 representative of its type. With the, 

 Monterey Cypress, theTorrey Pine, and 

 some other Cofiifene, it gives to the coast 

 ranges of California an absorbing in- 

 terest in the mind of the student of de- 

 scent and geographical distribution. 



This paper intends to set forth briefly 

 two somewhat important facts in con- 

 nection with this species : 



First. That its range, through the 

 author's personal explorations during 

 the past year, is much more extended 

 and its members much greater than were 

 before supposed. 



Second. That with this extension of 

 its range over the mountain mass of the 

 northern Santa Lucias, and the head- 

 waters of several rivers, the species is 

 seen to have an economic bearing on 

 the question of protection of these river 

 sources. 



Concerning the rarity of this species 

 and its distribution, as understood pre- 

 vious to this 3'ear, I cannot do better 

 than to quote from Sargent's Silva, vol. 

 xii (1898): "Of the species of Abies 

 now known, no other occupies such a 

 small territory ; for it grows only in a 

 few isolated groves, the largest contain- 



