PINACE^E 55 



nate, usually persistent 4-10 years. Flowers: male pale yellow sometimes tinged with 

 purple; female light yellow-green, with semiorbicular scales and short-oblong bracts emar- 

 ginate and denticulate at the broad obcordate apex furnished with a short strongly re- 

 flexed tip. Fruit cylindric, slightly narrowed to the rounded and sometimes retuse apex, 

 puberulous, bright green, 2'-4' long, with scales usually about two thirds as long as wide, 

 gradually or abruptly narrowed from their broad apex and three or four times as long as 

 their short pale green bracts; seeds f in length, light brown, with pale lustrous wings 

 s'-f ' long and nearly as broad as their abruptly widened rounded apex. 



A tree, in the neighborhood of the coast 250-300 high, with a slightly tapering trunk 

 often 4 in diameter, long somewhat pendulous branches sweeping out in graceful curves, 

 and comparatively slender pale yellow-green puberulous branchlets becoming light reddish 

 brown or orange-brown and glabrous in their second season; on the mountains of the in- 

 terior rarely more than 100 tall, with a trunk usually about 2 in diameter, often smaller 

 and much stunted at high elevations. Winter-buds subglobose, '-' thick. Bark becom- 

 ing sometimes 2' thick at the base of old trees and gray-brown or reddish brown and divided 

 by shallow fissures into low flat ridges broken into oblong plates roughened by thick closely 

 appressed scales. Wood light, soft, coarse-grained, not strong nor durable, light brown, 

 with thin lighter colored sap wood; occasionally manufactured into lumber in western 

 Washington and Oregon and used for the interior finish of buildings, packing-cases, and 

 wooden-w T are. 



Distribution. Northern part of Vancouver Island southward in the neighborhood of 

 the coast to northern Sonoma County, California, and along the mountains of northern 

 Washington and Idaho to the w r estern slopes of the continental divide in northern Montana, 

 and to the mountains of eastern Oregon; near the coast scattered on moist ground through 

 forests of other conifers; common in Washington and northern Oregon from the sea up 

 to elevations of 4000 ; in the interior on moist slopes in the neighborhood of streams from 

 2500 up to 7000 above the sea; in California rarely ranging more than ten miles inland 

 or ascending to altitudes of more than 1500 above the sea. 



Occasionally planted in the parks and gardens of temperate Europe, where it grows 

 rapidly and promises to attain a large size; rarely planted in the United States. 



5. Abies concolor Lindl. & Gord. White Fir. 



Leaves crowded, spreading in 2 ranks and more or less erect from the strong twist at their 

 base, pale blue or glaucous, becoming dull green at the end of two or three years, with 2 

 broad bands of stomata on the lower, and more or less stomatiferous on the upper surface, 

 on lower branches flat, straight, rounded, acute or acuminate at apex, 2'-3' long, about 

 iV wide, on fertile branches and on old trees frequently thick, keeled above, usually fal- 

 cate, acute or rarely notched at apex, f'-lj' long, often \' wide. Flowers: male dark red 

 or rose color; female with broad rounded scales, and oblong strongly reflexed obcordate 

 bracts laciniate above the middle and abruptly contracted at apex into short points. 

 Fruit oblong, slightly narrowed from near the middle to the ends, rounded or obtuse at 

 apex, 3'-5' long, puberulous, grayish green, dark purple or bright canary-yellow, with 

 scales much broader than long, gradually and regularly narrowed from the rounded apex, 

 rather more than twice as long as their emarginate or nearly truncate bracts broad at the 

 apex and terminating in short slender tips; seeds \'-\' long, acute at base, dark dull brown, 

 with lustrous rose-colored wings widest near the middle and nearly truncate at apex. 



A tree, on the California sierras 200-250 high, with a trunk often 6 in diameter or in the 

 interior of the continent rarely more than 125 tall, with a trunk seldom exceeding 3 in di- 

 ameter, a narrow spire-like crown of short stout branches clothed with long lateral branches 

 pointing forward and forming great frond-like masses of foliage, and glabrous lustrous com- 

 paratively stout branchlets dark orange color during their first season, becoming light 

 grayish green or pale reddish brown, and ultimately gray or grayish brown. Winter-buds 

 subglobose, f '-' thick. Bark becoming on old trunks sometimes 5'-6' thick near the 

 ground and deeply divided into broad rounded ridges broken on the surface into irregularly 



