150 Forests and Trees 



plish streaks, and varied by the yellowish-white sapwood. 

 It works easily and takes a good finish, its own rich color making 

 a dye unnecessary. It is largely used for furniture, boxes and 

 interior finishing for houses. The great width of the boards 

 makes it very popular for panelling, but being soft it is easily 

 injured. Large quantities of lumber from this tree are also 

 used for general building purposes, while it rivals the cedar of 

 the east in furnishing posts and poles. 



This noble tree reaches its best development in moist bottom 

 lands, but is found on mountain slopes at altitudes up to six 

 thousand feet. At the higher levels it is much reduced 

 in size, at times being only a shrub. It occurs in suitable 

 locations throughout the whole coast region of British Colum- 

 bia and eastward in river valleys and on mountain slopes to the 

 western side of the Rocky Mountains. 



"On the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway it first appears as 

 a shrub on the mountains about Kicking Horse Lake, at an altitude 

 of 6000 feet. Going westward down the valley of the Kicking Horse 

 it soon becomes a small tree, but in the Columbia valley is rather 

 scarce until about ten miles below Donald, where it forms large 

 groves, and in the valleys of Beaver Creek and the Illecillewaet in 

 the Selkirk Mountains it reaches a height of over 150 feet, with a 

 diameter of frequently over ten feet." MACOUN. 



" In British Columbia this tree abounds along the coast and lower 

 parts of the rivers of the Coast Range, northward to Alaska, but is 

 unknown in the dry central plateau, yet it appears abundantly on 

 the slopes of the Selkirk and Gold Ranges." DAWSON. 



This tree is cultivated in Europe, and dwarf varieties of it 

 have also been produced and used for ornamental purposes. 



VIII. THE GROUND CYPRESSES 

 Genus Chamaecyparis 



The name "cypress," like cedar, savors of the Old World. Al- 

 though the true cypresses are of another genus, the resemblance 



