^54 TREES 



the Appalacliian Mountains of southwestern Virginia, 

 Tennessee and North Carolina. The purple cones are 

 ornamented by pale yellow cut-toothed bracts that turn 

 back over the edge of the plain scale. Limited in range, 

 but forming forests between the limits of four and six 

 thousand feet in altitude, this tree is confined to local 

 uses as lumber and fuel. 



All the other firs of America are Western, and among 

 these are some of the tree giants of the world. 



The Red Fir 



A, magnifica, A. Murr. 



The magnificent red fir is called by John Muir "the 

 noblest of its race." In its splendid shaft that reaches 

 two hundred and fifty feet in height, and a trunk diameter 

 of seven feet, there is a symmetry and perfection of 

 finish throughout that is achieved by no other tree. One 

 above another in graduated lengths the branches spread 

 in level collars, the oldest drooping on the groimd, the 

 rest horizontal, their framework always five main branches 

 that carry luxuriant flat plumes of silvery needles. Each 

 leaf is almost equally four-sided, ribbed above and below, 

 with pale lines on all sides, so wide as to make the new 

 growth silvery throughout the season. Later these leaves 

 become blue-green, and persist for about ten years. 

 Only on the lower side of the branch are the leaves two- 

 ranked. 



The bark of this fir tree is covered with dark brown 

 scales, deeply divided into broad rounded ridges, broken 

 by cross fissures when old. Out toward the tips of the 



