ACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 

 FOSSIL FORESTS OF COLORADO. 



155 



I visited the petrified forests of Florisant, Teller County, Colorado, in 

 August, 1900. They are situated two miles from the station of the Colorado 

 Midland Railroad, in a valley a mile or so in diameter which seems at a 

 former period to have been a lake. The petrifactions consist entirely of 

 stumps, there were no logs, and are upon the higher slopes surrounding the 

 valley. The character of the wood is well preserved in the stone, the bark, 

 knots and wood are very perfect, showing the trees to have been some form 

 of a cedar; they much resemble thuja gigantea of Washington. (In 1884 



PETRIFIED FOKESTS 



I measured a thuja gigantea near Mount Baker which was sixty-five feet in 

 circumference and 265 feet in height.) There have been great numbers of 

 these fossilized stumps, but all save one have been carried away by col- 

 lectors, only scattered clippings remain where they were broken up for 

 removal. I carefully measured the one remaining stump and counted the 

 annual growths. It was at the time forty-five feet six inches girth, but much 

 had been broken off and removed; originally it was eifht^en feet in diameter 

 and nine feet high. Five saws are fastened in the stone where vandals en- 

 deavored to saw it into sections for removal. There are seven and one-half 

 yearly growths to an inch radius, the tree having required 1,620 years to 



