ABIES. 



abundant in the North Temperate Zone. Timber and turpentine are 

 their special products.* 



The Douglass Fir (AUes Dougldsn*) of Oregon, and the Red wood 

 (Sequoia sew.permrens) of California, are frequently 12 feet in diameter 

 and 200 feet high. The Lambert Pine (P. Lambertidna) of California, 

 a tree of faultless symmetry, is often 12 feet in diameter and 300 feet 



high. But over all towers the Giant 



Cedar of the Sierras (Sequoia gigdn- 



tea). One grove in Calaveras County contains 90 so-called "Big 



Trees," measuring from 20 to 36 feet in diameter and 350 in altitude 1 f 



* The wood of the Pines, Cedars, and of the Conifers generally, is remarkably dis- 

 tinguished by rows of circular disks which under the microscope appear like pearls 

 bedecking each wood-cell. This form, called pitted tissue, has often been detected 

 in the fossils of bituminous coal, thus, revealing the origin of that useful mineral. 



t Such is the perfect symmetry of these gigantic trees that the spectator finds it 

 difficult to realize their enormous proportions. " If," says Whitney, " one could be 



