356 BROADLEAF TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE 



Bed Alder. There are six species of Alder in the United 

 States, arid only one of them is of any commercial value. 

 The common name of that one is Red Alder, and it is 

 botanically known as Alnus oregona. It may be found 

 growing from Puget Sound and the southwestern part of 

 Washington, in Oregon, and along the Pacific Coast of 

 California from the Oregon line to Santa Barbara. It is a 

 broadleaf deciduous conifer. It may be found from eighty 

 to ninety feet in height, with a diameter of eighteen to 

 thirty inches, although far more commonly only forty to 

 fifty feet high and twelve to fifteen inches through. It is 

 light-demanding, and when grown in dense stands, sends 

 up a straight stem, with small, slim, drooping limbs in the 

 crown. The seedlings can endure considerable shade. 



The heart wood is soft, somewhat brittle, not strong, close- 

 grained, light brown tinged with red, with very thick and 

 nearly white sapwood when newly cut, but which turns to 

 a red-brown soon after. This discoloration comes from the 

 large amount of tannic acid in the wood, a sample of which, 

 secured by the author, showed, on analysis, 8.45 per cent 

 of tannin. It shows a fine satiny surface when properly 

 treated, and can be used for interior finish and furniture. 

 Some fine samples of the finished wood were on exhibition 

 at the Lewis and Clark Exhibition at Portland, Oregon. 



It is a prolific seeder, and if care were taken to thin 

 dense natural stands, it would, no doubt, be profitable to 

 grow it for lumber alone, for it is a rapid grower for the 

 first twenty-five or thirty years of its life, trees running 

 from ten to eighteen inches in diameter at twenty-five to 

 fifty years of age, while the large amount of tannin the 

 wood contains will add to its value when other sources for 

 that necessary commodity fail. It attains its largest size 

 along the coast, and flourishes best in a moist, fertile soil 

 and a humid atmosphere. 



Western Chinquapin. No doubt this tree has been 

 called a Chinquapin because of the resemblance of its fruit 





