234 TEEES IN" WINTER 



DOUGLAS FIR 



Red Fir, Douglas Spruce. 



Pseudotsuga taxifolia (Lam.) Britton. 



P. mucronata (Raf.) Sudw. ; P. Douglasii (Lindl.) Carr. 



HABIT — A tree under favorable conditions in the west reaching a 

 height of 200 ft. or over and a trunk diameter up to 10 or 12 ft.; 

 branches horizontal with more or less pendulus branchlets forming a 

 pyramidal head. A number of varieties are in cultivation varying 

 somewhat in habit and color of foliage. 



BARK — On young trunks dark gray, smooth, with few resin blisters, 

 soon becoming roughened, with reddish-brown scales and eventually 

 deeply ridged. 



TAVIGS — Reddish to yellowish-brown, more or less downy, becoming 

 with age smooth and dark grayish-brown. Photograph of twig is about 

 % natural size. 



LEAVES — Scattered, sometimes appearing somewhat 2-ranked but 

 less distinctly so than leaves of the Balsam Fir, dark green above, pale 

 below with grayish lines of minute dots, flattened, generally blunt, 

 % inch or more long, slightly narrowed at base but not distinctly 

 stalked, arising at about a right angle to the twig and leaving in falling 

 a round scar slightly raised at the base, slightly fragrant and aro- 

 matic when crushed. MICROSCOPIC SECTION — showing a single fibro- 

 vascular bundle, 2 resin-ducts next to the epidermis, strengthening cells 

 beneath the epidermis and generally around the resin-ducts, giant 

 thick-walled irregularly lobed cells frequently appearing in cross- 

 sections of the leaf on either side of the bundle, stomata on the 

 under side. 



BUDS — Comparatively large, narrowly ovate to conical, sharp-pointed, 

 reddish-brown, 7-12 mm. long, loosely clustered at tips of twigs; bud- 

 scales not resinous-coated, often with reflexed tips. 



FRUIT — A cone maturing in one season, pendant, stalked, 2-4% inches 

 long. SCALES — persistent, rounded on edges with conspicuous pro- 

 truding bracts which are long-pointed and laterally winged like the 

 feathering on an arrow. 



COMPARISOXS — The Douglas Fir resembles the Balsam Fir but 

 may be readily distinguished by its large dark brown buds, free from 

 resin, by the slightly projecting leaf-scars and especially by the 

 cones with persistent scales and lobed bracts. Further, a thin knife 

 section held toward the light and looked at with a hand-lens shows the 

 two resin-ducts on the edge of the leaf while those of the Balsam Fir 

 are located between the edge and the bundle. 



DISTRIBUTION — Throughout the Rocky mountain system south of 

 latitudes 55 degrees north to the Pacific coast, forming extensive for- 

 ests. Planted for ornament in the eastern states where, however, only 

 plants grown from seed obtained from the interior of the continent 

 are successful. 



WOOD — Light red or yellow, with nearly white sapwood, very 

 variable in density, quality and in the thickness of the sapwood; 

 largely manufactured into lumber in British Columbia, western Wash- 

 ington and Oregon and used for all kinds of construction, fuel, railroad 

 ties and piles. The bark is sometimes used in tanning leather. 



