Pseudotsiuja. CONIFERS. 



119 



* * Leaves more or less quadrangular, short and curved upward. 

 H- Bracts exsert. 



4. A. nobilis, Lindl. A ma-nilicent tree, 200 feet liigli, witli thick cinnamon- 

 brown bark (red inside) : leaves rigid, curved upward, covering tlie upper side of the 

 branchlets, glaucous and stoinatoso and kcieled both on theuppcT and under side 

 acute or obtuse, about an inch long, only on the youngest trees or lowest brandies 

 longer (1^ inches), Hatter, slightly grooved and somewhat 2-ranked : cones cylin- 

 drical-oblong, thick, G to 9 inches long by 2\ or 3 inches broad, obtuse, ahuost 

 covered by the exsert rcllcxod cuncate cuspidate bracts; scales comparatively nar- 

 row (1^ inches wide, by an inch long or more) : seeds slender, with a cuneate-trian- 

 gular somewhat retuse wing : embryo with 7 or 8 cotyletlons. — Penny Cyc. i. 30 ; 

 JS'utt. 1. c, t. 117; Engelm. 1. c. GOl. Pimis nobilis, i)ougl. ; Parlat. Picea nobilis 

 Loud. 1. c. 2342, tig. ; Newberry, 1. c. 49, lig. 17. 



The " Red Fir" of Noitherii CaUfoniia, tbnuiiig large forests about the base of Moinit Shasta, 

 at 6,000 to 8,000 feet altitiule, ami exteiuliiig tliiough the Cascade Mountahis to the Cohunbia 

 River. The timber is said to be better than that of other (ws. Forms are found with almost 

 enclosed bracts, often accompanying the others, which may connect with the followhig species. 



•t- -t- Bracts enclosed. 



5. A. magnifica, Murray. Similar to the last, even more than 200 feet high 

 and 8 to 10 feet in diameter, with the same kind of thick red-brown bark, and with 

 similar very rigid foliage, but the leaves never grooved nor notched even on the 

 young trees, on older branches shorter and thicker, so tliat tlicy are mostly only a 

 fourth wider than thick or even perfectly sfiuare, ami often only G to 9 lines long : 

 cones G to 8 inches long, 2^ to 3| inches thick, purplish brown ; bracts lanceo- 

 late, acuminate, sJKjrter than the very wide scales, which are 1| to 13 inches broad 

 by scarcely an inch high : seeds slender, the wing broader, very obliquely obovate- 

 cuneate : cotyledons 8 to 10. — Proc. Ilort. Soc. iii. 318 ; Engelm. 1. c. GOl. Abies 

 amnbilis of Californian botanists. 



The "Red Fir" of the higher Sierras is not rare at an altitude of 7,000 to 10,000 feet, but forms 

 no Ibrests by itself. Easily distinguished from the last by the enclosed bracts. Forms, however, 

 are said to oc(;ur (Mount Silliman, Brewer) with exsert bracts, and it remains to be seen whether 

 tlie sliglit dillerences in the leaves, scales and seeds will suffice to keep the species separate. 



8. PSEUDOTSUGA, Carrifere. Douglas Si-nrcE. 

 Flowers from the axils of last year's leaves. ^Male flowers an oblong or subcylin- 

 drical stamineal column, surrounded and partly enclosed by numerous conspicuous 

 orbicular bud-scales ; commissure of the anthers terminating in a short spur, the cells 

 opening obliquely by one continuous slit : pollen-grains ovate-subglobose. Female 

 flowers with the scales much shorter than the broadly linear acutely 2-lobed and long- 

 pointed or aristate bracts. Cones maturing in the first year, with persistent scales 

 and exsert bracts. Seeds without resin-vesicles, the wing at last breaking off. 

 Cotyledons G to 12. — A very largo tree, at first pyramidal and spruce like, often at 

 last more spreading, with yellow or reddish rather coarse but very valual)lo wood, 

 which is distinguished from that of all the allied conifers by the abundance of 

 spirally marked wood-cells. Leaves flat, distinctly petioled, somewhat 2-ranked bj' 

 a twist at the base, stomatose only on the lower surface, with two lateral resin-ducts 

 close to the epidermis of the under side, leaving on the branchlets scarcely prominent 

 transversely oval scars. — Conif. 2 ed. 25G. Finns, sect. Tsuga, Endl., in part; 

 Parlat. Abiea, Lindl., in part. 



A single species, which extends through the Rocky jrountaiiis and moiuitains of California, 

 from Oregon far into Mexico, and is in Oregon tlio largest and most important tiniber-tieo. 



