62 WEST-AMERICAN 



its whitened leaves. Valuable timber trees ; wood 

 durable in contact with the soil, hence much used for 

 bridge timber, etc. 



This beautiful "Queen of the Sierra" is most regular 

 in youth, with its verticils of branches maintained in 

 perfection until age, if favorably situated, and becoming 

 a noble tower of stratified foliage 150 to 300 feet high. 

 The leaves are so short and close wrapped, the branch- 

 lets so numerous and regularly placed as pinnae along the 

 broad, almost contiguous sprays, that the light of day is 

 but partially admitted; and the. visitor to a Fir forest, 

 in looking upward, gazes through veil after veil of airy, 

 gauzy, reticulated sprays that give an impression of 

 beauty and grace it is believed that transcends any- 

 thing elsewhere seen in the vegetable world. 



SHASTA FIR. Var. (a) Shastensis, Lemmon. 



This variety forms a large, almost exclusive forest 

 on the high plateau of lava thrown out by Shasta in 

 former times. A few trees are scattered, also, over 

 the high slopes of Mount Eddy, Scott, Trinity and 

 Siskiyou peaks, at elevations of 6,000 to 8,000 feet. 



The peculiarity of this variety of Fir, aside from its 

 locality, is connected mostly with the fact of its cone- 

 bracts becoming long and protruded, a half to a full inch 

 between the scales, rendering the large purple cones, 

 thus decked out with tasseled fringes, a most beautiful 

 object. Male flowers equally showy, as they fringe the 

 bearing branches with large crimson pendants. 



The trees are very large and lofty, though not so im- 

 mense and high-headed as in the typical southern form, 



