-256 TREES 



The Noble Fir 



A. nohilis, Lindl. 



The noble fir or red fir is another giant of the Northwest. 

 On the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains of Wash- 

 ington and Oregon it reaches occasionally two hundred 

 and fifty feet in height, differing from magnifica in being 

 round-topped instead of pyramidal before maturity. Its 

 red-brown wood, furrowed bark and the red staminate 

 flowers justify its name. The twigs are red and velvety 

 for four or five years. The leaves are deeply grooved 

 above, rounded and obscurely ribbed on the lower surface, 

 blue-green, often silvery through their first season, crowded 

 and curved so that the tips point away from the end of the 

 branch. 



The oblong cylindrical cones, four to ^ve inches long, 

 are velvety, their scales covered by bracts, shaped and 

 notched like a scallop shell, with a forward-pointing spine, 

 exceeding the bract in length. Forests of this tree at 

 elevations of twenty-five hundred to five thousand feet 

 are found in Washington and northern Oregon, from which 

 limited quantities of the brownish-red wood enter the 

 lumber trade under the name of "larch." 



The White Fir 



A, grandis, Lindl. 



The white fir is a striking figure, from its silvery lined, 

 dark green foliage, its slender pyramidal form that 

 reaches three hundred feet in height, and the vivid green 

 of its mature cones that are destitute of ornament and 



