140 FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



Dimensions. — The height and diameter of these trees is popularly much over- 

 estimated. Ordinary large trees are about 250 or 280 feet high, while excep- 

 tionally large ones are from 300 to 330 feet, with diameters of from 12 to 17 

 feet, or occasionally 20 to 27 feet through, measured 8 to 10 feet above the 

 greatly swelled bases. Doubtless, exaggeration of actual dimensions is due to 

 inaccurately measuring some of the largest trees so as to include the immense 

 basal buttresses, which are properly no part of the trunk's thickness. 



In youth the conspicuously conical trunks are densely clothed to the ground 

 with short, slender branches which curve and point upward sharply, forming" 

 a broad, sharp-pointed pyramid. In this form it is extremely handsome and 

 graceful. It usually retains its long crown for from 200 to 300 years, except in 

 very crowded stands : afterwards the lower limbs gradually thin out and become 

 drooping, with a greater weight of dense foliage, as do also the middle crown 

 branches ; only the uppermost ones trending upward. Later, and toward ma- 

 turity, the great trunks are clear of branches, except for a straggling branch 

 here and there, for from 80 to 125 feet or more. The crown has tben lost all 

 semblance to its youthful form, and is a short, narrow, round-topped dome, 

 irregular in outline and somewhat open. The once straight leader has died 

 and lost its top, or the side branches have overtaken it and together round off 

 the crown. All of tbe branches have become enormously large, crooked, and 

 bent, some drooping and others horizontal, and all bearing dense masses of deep 

 blue-green foliage. The leaves (fig. 56), sharp pointed, longer, and more spread- 

 ing at their points on stouter main stems (fig. 55 (.overlap each other, covering 

 the slender, drooping sprays. The smaller twigs have shorter leaves, and the 

 larger have longer leaves.' Longer, more spreading, but similarly arranged, 

 keenly pointed leaves are borne by seedlings from one to several years old. 

 The cones (fig. 56) are matured by the end of the second summer, when they are 

 dark bluish to olive green. They open slowly during early autumn, the thick 

 stiff cone scales parting only little, but sufficiently to liberate the thin, pale 

 brown, winged seed (fig. 56, a). About 4 to 6 seeds are borne under each cone 

 scale. Purplish grains of rosin-like substance fall from among the dried-out 

 cone scales, and impart a deep purple to water, as do also the cones themselves. 

 This substance contains 70 per cent of tannin, and is in this and other respects 

 the same as that frequently found exuded in hard masses in the burned hollows 

 of the trunks of these trees. Upon drying, after which most of the cones fall, 

 the cones are dull yellowish-brown, the inner portions of the scales, red-brown. 

 The minute narrowly winged seeds are not borne far from the parent tree. 

 Thousands of ripe cones are cut down, just before they open, by indefatigable 

 little pine squirrels. These are buried for winter food, many at the base of the 

 parent. When fire and storm or the ax lay the parent low, some of these seeds 

 spring up and replace it. Seed leaves, 5. five-eighths inch long, slender, and 

 pointed ; scattered, shorter but similar, leaves succeed these, topped the follow- 

 ing year by sharp scale-like leaves one-fourth of an inch long. Succeeding 

 growth has the longer sharp form of adult leaves. 



Wood of the bigtree is brilliant rose-purple red when first cut, later becom- 

 ing more and more dull purplish red-brown. It is very light (redwood is 

 much heavier), brittle, variable in grain from coarse (the growth of the first 

 400 or 500 years or more) to very fine-grained (the later growth). It contains, 

 as does the bark, a large amount of tannin, which doubtless has much to do 

 with its remarkable durability in an unprotected state. Prostrate trunks lie 

 for centuries on the ground with no sign of decay, except in the perishable 

 sapwood. The wood is widely useful for commercial purposes, passing in the 

 market as " redwood ; " though lighter and more brittle than the coast redwood, 

 it is said to be not less valuable for lumber. As already stated (p. 139), so small 



