PINACE^E 59 



midribs, acute, with short callous tips, \ r long on the upper side of the branch to \\' long on 

 the lower side, crowded, erect, strongly incurved, completely hiding the upper side of the 

 branch, on leading shoots f ' long, erect and acuminate, with long rigid points pressed 

 against the stem. Flowers: male dark reddish purple; female with rounded scales much 

 shorter than their oblong pale green bracts terminating in elongated slender tips more or 

 less tinged with red. Fruit oblong-cylindric, slightly narrowed to the rounded, truncate, 

 or retuse apex, dark purplish brown, puberulous, from 6'-9' long, with scales often 1^' 

 wide and about two thirds as wide as long, gradually narrowed to the cordate base, some- 

 what longer or often two thirds as long as their spatulate acute or acuminate bracts slightly 

 serrulate above the middle and often sharply contracted and then enlarged toward the 

 base; seeds dark reddish brown, f long, about as wide as their lustrous rose-colored ob- 

 ovate cuneate wings nearly truncate and often f ' wide at apex. 



A tree, in old age occasionally somewhat round-topped, frequently 200 high, with a 

 trunk 8-10 in diameter and often naked for half the height of the tree, comparatively 

 short small branches, the upper somewhat ascending, the lower pendulous, and stout light 

 yellow-green branchlets pointing forward, slightly puberulous during their first season, 

 becoming light red-brown and lustrous and ultimately gray or silvery white. Winter- 

 buds ovoid, acute, i'-f ' long, their bright chestnut-brown scales with prominent midribs 

 produced into short tips. Bark becoming 4'-6' thick near the ground, deeply divided into 

 broad rounded ridges broken by cross fissures and covered by dark red-brown scales. 

 Wood light, soft, not strong, comparatively durable, light red-brown, with thick somewhat 

 darker sapwood; largely used for fuel, and in California occasionally manufactured into 

 coarse lumber employed in the construction of cheap buildings and for packing-cases. 



Distribution. Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon, southward over the mountain 

 ranges of northern California (summits of the Trinity and Salmon Mountains and on the 

 inner north coast ranges), and along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada to the divide 

 between White and Kern Rivers; common in southern Oregon at elevations between 5000 

 and 7000 above the sea, forming sometimes nearly pure forests; very abundant on the 

 Sierra Nevada, and the principal tree in the forest belt at elevations between 6000 and 

 9000; ascending towards the southern extremity of its range to over 10,000. Small 

 stunted trees from the neighborhood of Meadow Lake, Sierra County, California, with 

 yellowish cones have been described as var. xancocarpa Lemm. 



Often planted as an ornamental tree in western and central Europe, and sometimes 

 hardy in the United States as far north as eastern Massachusetts. 



A distinct form is 



Abies magnifica var. shastensis Lemm. Red Fir. 



On the mountains of southern Oregon and at high elevations on those of northern Cali- 

 fornia, and on the southern Sierra Nevada, occurs this form distinguished only by the 



Fig. 60 



