154 FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE. 



Where the ridges are formed growth appears to be made at the expense of the 

 intervening wood, and the fluted trunk is the result. This character is less pro- 

 nounced on smaller trees. Height, from 150 to 175 feet, or very exceptionally 

 190 or 200 feet, with a diameter of from 3* to 8 feet, or, in very old trees, rarely 

 10 or even 16 feet. The enormous girth of such trees is at the base; their 

 diameter decreases rapidly, so that at 20 feet from the ground they may be no 

 more than or 10 feet in diameter. From 50 to 100 feet of clear trunk is 

 common. Young trees are straight, with an open, narrow, conical crown reach- 

 ing almost to the ground and tapering to a sharp top ; the slender whip-like 

 leader often nods in a graceful- curve. Except when densely crowded, trees 

 retain all their branches until they are 18 or 20 inches in diameter and from 50 

 to 80 feet high ; in the open they become much older without losing their lower 

 branches. On young trees the slender limbs all curve upward, but later they 

 become very long, the lower ones drooping and those higher swinging down in 

 a long, graceful curve, with an upward sweep at the ends. The flat, lace-like, 

 yellow-green side sprays bang from the branches like lines of fringe. Old trees 

 in dense stands have only a short, blunt, or round-topped, conical head. A 

 notable feature in this tree is the frequent occurrence of two leaders which 

 combine in forming a dense crown. The bark, even on old trunks, is thin, from 

 five-eighths to seven-eighths of an inch thick, and owing to this the tree is in 

 great danger from fire, from which it rarely escapes without fatal injury. In 

 color the bark is a clear, reddish, cinnamon-brown, often weathered outwardly 

 to a grayish brown. It is distinctly but shallowly seamed, with narrow 

 ridges which in old trunks are rounded and on younger trees flat. The ridges 

 run irregularly and continuously, with rare breaks, but are connected at short 

 intervals by thinner diagonal ridges and fibers. The bark has a more or less 

 stringy, fibrous appearance, and may be separated into long, thin strips on 

 younger trees, and into shorter scales on old trunks. The inner bark is very 

 tough and strong. Indians peel strips of it 20 or 30 feet long from young trees 

 for basket making. 



Densely crowded large trees are clear of branches for from 40 to SO feet, 

 but they often have scattered branches below the crown. The boles are fairly 

 straight, but large trees are frequently bowed or slightly bent, and are rarely 

 full and round. 



The small scale-like leaves (figs. 59, 60), sufficiently characterized under the 

 genus, remain on the tree about 3 years. As the main stems of a branch grow. 

 its short, flat, side branchlets die and fall during their second year, in this habit 

 resembling the similar sprays of Libocedrus. The leathery brown cones (fig. 

 co i mature by the end of August, and have about 6 seed-bearing scales, each 

 of which bears from 2 to 3 seeds. After shedding their light double-winged 

 seeds (fig. 60, b), the cones remain on the trees until the following spring or 

 summer. Seed-leaves, 2; opposite, lance-shaped, and exceedingly small — about 

 one-fourth of an inch long. Those which afterwards grow, 2 to 3 at short inter- 

 vals, on the slender seedling are similar, but longer, widely spread, and bent 

 downward. Short, scaly leaves similar in arrangement to those on adult stems, 

 but longer and sharp-pointed, appear on the seedling at the end of its first or 

 second year, and a year or two later the leaves become like those of adult trees. 



Wood very light, strongly aromatic; dull, slightly reddish brown, but losing 

 the reddish tinge with exposure. Its grain ranges from medium coarse to fine. 

 It is very brittle and soft. Great durability under all sorts of exposure is its 

 most important commercial quality. Large logs have lain half-buried in wet 

 ground over fifty years with but little sign of decay in the heartwood. On 

 account of its durability and the large clear cuts obtainable it is extensively 

 used for shingles. 



