132 FOREST TEEES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



years old often bear cones, but seed is produced mainly by older and mature trees. Seed 

 production appears to increase with age and to be maintained to great age. Seed of low 

 germination (40 to 50 per cent), and of very transient vitality; much of it destroyed by 

 an insect and eaten by squirrels. Seed germinates freely and seedlings grow well on any 

 moist humus or mineral soil in the open or in moderate shade; seedlings do not thrive 

 in shade of mother trees. Openings made near seed trees are readily restocked. 



Red Fir. 

 Abies magnified Murray. 



DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC'S. 



The common name of red fir is appropriately chosen in reference to the deep 

 red-brown bark which it almost invariably has throughout its range. It is a 

 stately tree when fully grown, commonly from 125 to 175 feet high, very excep- 

 tionally 200 feet or more, and from 30 to 50 inches in diameter; trees from GO 

 to 80 inches in diameter are rather rare. Much larger trees are said to have 

 been found, but the writer has never seen them. At high elevations, much 

 exposed to heavy winds, it is very often from 40 to 80 feet high and from 20 to 

 30 inches in diameter, or smaller. In close stands the straight, slightly tapering 

 trunks are clear of branches for GO or 80 feet or more. On high exposed slopes, 

 smaller trees are often conspicuously bent down the slope at their base, as a 

 result of heavy snows which yearly bend the seedlings to the ground. Their 

 struggle to become upright with each year's growth never wholly rids them of 

 the mark of early vicissitudes. The crown of old forest grown trees is a short, 

 very narrow, round-topped cone, sometimes almost cylindrical. The short 

 branches droop except at the top of the crown, where they trend upward. It 

 has' an open head, due to the distances between the regular whorls of 

 branches. Only in the densest stands are medium-sized trees clear of branches 

 for half or more of their length. In the high, fairly dense slope forests many 

 trees bear straggling branches nearly to the ground. Here, too, the brittle tops 

 are often broken off by wind, when the lost member is replaced by the upward 

 growth of one or two side branches, which soon assume the form and place of 

 leaders. Broken and repaired crowns of this type are familiar sights on wind- 

 swept slopes inhabited by this fir. Young trees (30 to 50 years old and as many 

 feet high) have narrow, cylindrical, sharp-pointed crowns, touching the ground. 

 All of the regular groups of branches, except the topmost, sweep down and 

 upward at their ends in graceful curves, presenting a form which is unsur- 

 passed in beauty and symmetry by any other of our conifers. The bark, smooth 

 and conspicuously chalky white on young trees and on the upper stem and 

 branches of old trees, is from 2 to 3 inches thick on large trees; its hard, rough, 

 deep furrows and narrow, rounded ridges are very distinctive. The latter are 

 irregularly divided by diagonal furrows, which give a peculiar diagonal and 

 vertical or zig-zag trend to the ridges. No other tree in the habitat of this fir 

 has bark in any way similar. 



The dense foliage is dark blue-green, with a whitish tinge; new leaves of the 

 season are much lighter green and conspicuously whitened. The leaves are 4- 

 angled with nearly equal sides, the angle on the upper sides of the leaves being 

 rounded. Leaves of the lower branches (fig. 52) are flatter than those from 

 other parts of the crown. They are bent from the lower side of the branches 

 so that they appear to grow from the top of the branch, mainly in two dense 

 upright lines ; all are more or less curved. Lower leaves, from three-fourths 

 inch to about 1\ inches long, are blunt and wider at their ends than at their 

 bases. Leaves of the upper crown branches (fig. 53), five-eighths inch to about 

 1& inches long, are most strongly 4-sided, stouter than those below, conspicu- 



