112 



FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



cessation of height growth in the leader and an elongation of the older, shorter 

 top side branches. All of the branches, except the topmost, have a distinct 

 downward and upward swing. The bark, peculiarly characteristic, is smooth 

 and ashy brown, with chalky areas on young trunks, while on older trees it is 

 regularly and shallowly furrowed, the long flat ridges still retaining splashes 

 of gray-white. In old trees the bark is more deeply but narrowly furrowed, the 

 ridges being sharper and less conspicuously flecked with white. The general 



Fig. 40. — Abies grandis, lower branch. 



tone becomes pale red-brown with an ashen tinge. The bark is very hard, close, 

 and horny ; rarely over If inches thick on old trunks, and scarcely an inch 

 thick on trees from 18 to 20 inches in diameter. 



The deep yellow-green shiny foliage is somewhat thin in appearance because 

 of the characteristic spreading, especially of lower leaves. The leaves of 

 the lower crown branches are flat, grooved, blunt, and distinctly notched at 

 their ends (fig. 40) ; they appear to grow and to stand out distinctly from two 



