EVERGREENS OF COLORADO 



27 



The needles are usually about 

 one inch in length, flattened and 

 slightly grooved above and with 

 a prominent midrib on the under 

 surface. On lateral branchlets, 

 they have a tendency to spread 

 horizontally in such a way as to 

 form flattened masses of foliage. 

 The needles are narrowed at the 

 base in the form of a short stalk 

 which falls away with the upper 

 part of the needle, a character 

 which readily distinguishes this 

 tree from the spruces. 



The bark on the trunks of 

 young trees is smooth and grey in 

 color. In older trees it becomes 

 broken into strong ridges, which 

 in large specimens may reach a 

 thickness of several inches. In 

 the Rocky Mountain form of this 

 tree, the bark on old trees is 

 deeply furrowed and of a light 

 brownish grey color. The sap 

 wood is yellowish in color, with 

 heart wood of a light red or some 

 times reddish yellow. It is vari- 

 able in density and quality in dif- 

 ferent trees and to some extent in 

 different parts of the same tree. 



In the Pacific Coast range of 

 this tree, two varieties are distin- 

 guished by lumbermen: the red 

 fir and the yellow fir, depending 

 somewhat upon the quality of the 

 timber. In the former the wood 

 is coarse grained, dark colored 

 and is not considered as valuable 

 as in the yellow variety. 



The cones of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain form of this tree are usually 

 about two or two and one-half 

 inches in length and are made up 

 of rather large broad scales, each 

 one accompanied by a projecting 

 three-pronged bract. The pres- 

 ence of these cones is one of the 

 easiest characters by which to dis- 

 tinguish this tree from the balsam 



Fig-. 16. 



Blue Spruce, 19-inch trunk 

 60 feet tall. 



