DOUGLAS FIR 



(Pseudotsuga Taxifolia) 



DURING one hundred and ten years, from 1803 until the present 

 time, botanists and others have proposed and rejected names for 

 this tree. It has been called a fir, pine, and spruce, with various combi- 

 nations, but the name now seems to be fixed. Laymen have disputed 

 almost as much as botanists as to what the tree should be named. It 

 has been called red fir, Douglas spruce, Douglas fir, yellow fir, spruce, fir, 

 pine, red pine, Puget Sound pine, Oregon pine, cork-barked Douglas 

 spruce, and Douglas tree. More than a dozen varieties are distinguished 

 in cultivation. 



The range of Douglas fir covers most of the Rocky Mountain region 

 in the United States and northward to central British Columbia; on the 

 coast from the latitude of southern Alaska to the Sierra Nevada moun- 

 tains in central California. It reaches its maximum development in 

 western Washington and Oregon, particularly between the Cascade 

 mountains and the Pacific ocean. In these Cascade forests, stands are 

 found which yield from 50,000 to 100,000 feet per acre, and mills in that 

 region cut the longest timbers in the world, some two feet square and 100 

 feet long. 



Two forms of Douglas fir are recognized by botanists, not essen- 

 tially different except in size and habit of growth. One is the finely 

 developed form on the Pacific coast where the climate is warm and the 

 ah- moist. The other is the Rocky Mountain form which is smaller and 

 shows the effect of cold, dryness, and other adverse circumstances. 

 When the seeds of the two forms are planted in nurseries, where they 

 enjoy identical advantages, the coast form outgrows the other in Europe, 

 but the Rocky Mountain form thrives best in the eastern part of the 

 United States. 



Douglas fir needles are from three-quarters to one and a quarter 

 inches long, and of a dark, yellow-green color. They remain on the 

 twigs about eight years. Conep are from two to four and a half inches 

 long, and are borne on long stems. The seeds, which ripen in August, are 

 of light, reddish-brown color with irregular white spots on the lower side ; 

 are about a quarter of an inch long, and are provided with wings. Trees 

 of this species in the moist climate of the Pacific slope average much 

 larger than those hi the mountains farther east. The largest are 300 

 feet high, occasionally more, and from eight to ten in diameter. The 

 average among the Rocky Mountains is from eighty to 100 feet high, 

 and two to four in diameter. Young trees are slender with crowded 



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