August 5, 1909 105 



THE ALPINE SPRUCE 



By A. A. Heller 



1/ Tsuga Mertrnsiana (Bong.) Carr. Trait Conif. ed. 2, 250. 

 1867. 

 Pinus Merlensiana Bong. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI. 2: 



163. 1832. 

 Abies Pattoniana Jeffrey, Bot. Exped. Oregon, No. 4, 30. 



//. 4. 1853. 

 Abies Williamsonii Newberry, Pac. R. R. Rep. 6: 53. pi. 



7-f- i9- 1857. 



Tsuga Pattonici7ia Engelm. Bot. Cal. 2: 121. 1880. 



Hcsperopeuce Pattoniana Lemmon, Third Bien. Rep. Cal. 

 Bd. For. 126. 1890. 



Only those hardy explorers of nature who wander afar among 

 the elevated fastnesses of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges 

 will find this splendid tree with its graceful drooping fern-like 

 branches, for it is found this far south only at high elevations. 



Originally collected by Mertens on the island of Sitka, 

 Alaska, while that Territory was still a Russian possession, it 

 was long confused with a species much more common on the 

 Pacific slope, namely, Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sargent, a spe- 

 cies-inhabiting much lower regions, and more or less common 

 in the coast region almost as far south as San Francisco. In the 

 Third Biennial Report of the California State Board of Forestry, 

 Mr. Lemmon writes concerning it as follows under the name of 

 Hesperopeuce Pattoniana: 



"This, the last of the Spruces to be described here, is a fine 

 representative of strictly alpine arboreal vegetation, and hence 

 limited to the upper points of forests that creep up along glacier 

 beds and volcanic ravines, close to the perpetual ice. 



"As but few of our mountains rise into this alpine region, so 

 there are but few localities where these trees may be found fring- 

 ing the upper edge of the coniferous forests, notably: around the 

 snow cap of Mounts Ranier, Hood, Pitt, Scott, Shasta, Lassen, 

 Sierra Buttes, Haskell's Peak, Webber Peak, Mounts Lola, Tal- 

 lac, Silver Peak, Mounts Lvall and Whitney — in short, almost 



