THE FIRS 251 



becomes thin and ragged at maturity. The same fate 

 overtakes tlie trim little lawn trees, so perfect in color and 

 symmetry for a few years. 



Tideland Spruce 



P. Sitckensis, Carr. 



The tideland spruce is the most important lumber tree in 

 Alaska. It inhabits the coast region from Cape Mendo- 

 cino, in California, northward; and is abundant on wet, 

 sandy and swampy soil. The conspicuous traits of this 

 tree are its strongly buttressed trunk, one hundred to two 

 hundred feet tall, often greatly swollen at the base; the 

 graceful sweep of its wide low-spreading lower limbs; and 

 the constant play of light and shadows in the tree-top, due 

 to the lustrous sheen on the bright foliage. It is a mag- 

 nificent tree, one of the largest and most beautiful of the 

 Western conifers, indomitable in that it climbs from the 

 sea-level to altitudes three thousand feet above, and fol- 

 lows the coast farther north than any other conifer. 



THE FIRS 



In a forest of evergreens the spire form, needle leaves, 

 and some other traits belong to several families. To dis- 

 tinguish the firs from the spruces, which they closely re- 

 semble in form and foliage, notice the position of the 

 cones. All fir trees hold their ripe cones erect. No other 

 family with large cones has this striking characteristic. 

 All the rest of the conifers have pendent cones, except the 

 small-fruited cypresses and arbor-vitaes. 



