CONIFEES OP THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION. 21 



Montana, and those of Pseudotsuga macrocarpa in the Pleistocene of 

 Humboldt County, Cal. ^^ 



DOUGLAS FIR; DOUGLAS SPRUCE. 



Pseudotsuga taxifolia (Poir.) Britton. 



COMMON NAME AND EARLY HISTORY. 



During the last 30 years Pseudotsuga taxifolia has become very 

 widely known both in this country and elsewhere for its cominer- 

 cially valuable timber. Many confusing common names, such as 

 "red fir," ''red spruce," "Douglas spruce," "yellow fir," "Oregon 

 pine," and "Paget Sound pine," have been apphed to it in different 

 parts of its extensive range, but it is now generally known as Douglas 

 fir, which commemorates the name of David Douglas, by whom 

 seed of this tree was first sent to England ^^ in 1827 from the region 

 of Columbia River, Oreg. Through this seed the tree first became 

 laiown to science. The tree was, however, first discovered in 1791 by 

 Dr. Archibald Menzies, who found it on Nootka Sound (west coast of 

 Vancouver Island). Dr. Menzies was at that time a surgeon attached 

 to George Vancouver's expedition ^° to the north Pacific coast. 

 Lewis and Clark's •** account of this tree, published in 1805, was the 

 first printed notice of it to appear. Dr. C. C. Parry's discovery of 

 Douglas fir in the Rockies of Colorado in 1862 is the first instance of 

 its being found east of the Pacific slope. 



The botanical history of Douglas fir shows that nearly 30 specific 

 and varietal names have been applied to the tree during the 

 113 years it has been known to science.^^ The first tenable 



28 Fide Dr. Edward W. Berry. See footnote 4. 



29 Fide J. G. Jack, in Garden and Forest, VI, 14, 1893. 

 3" See footnote 19. 



31 History of expedition under command of Lewis and Clark, III, 831 (ed. Coues), 1805. 



32 Douglas fir is said to have been first introduced into cultivation in England from the Pacific region in 

 about 1827. A tree at Dropmore, raised from seed planted at that time, is believed to be the oldest one in 

 England (Frost, in Gard. Chron. 1871, p. 1360). 



According to Elwes and Henry (The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, IV, 824-827, 1909), trials in 

 England of the Rocky Mountain and Pacific slope forms of Douglas Hr show that both grow well there, 

 but that trees from the Pacific region grow considerably faster and are, therefore, much more desirable 

 for forest planting there than the Rocky Mountain form. 



A number of the largest trees in England planted during the period from about 1830 to 1865 range from 

 about 100 to 128 feet in height and from 4 to 6 feet in diameter. 



As nearly as can be determined, Douglas fir was first introduced into cultivation in Europe in 1831. 

 John Booth (Die Douglas Fichte u. e. a. Nadelh., 50, 1877) speaks of the record of a tree 2 years old 

 planted in Germany during that year as the oldest example known there in 1877. This tree was then 

 48 years old and about 70 feet high, with a diameter of 22 inches. Booth mentions having seen another 

 tree of similar proportions, probably planted at about the same timein the region of Greifswald, Germany, 

 and also one planted near Bremen in 1855, which was 39i feet high in 1877. It is not known whether or 

 not these trees are the Pacific slope or the Rocky Mountain form. 



Extensive tests made by the German Government during the early nineties of both the Pacific slope 

 and the Rocky Mountain forms of Douglas fir show that the former strain grows more rapidly in Germany 

 than the latter, but that the Pacific slope tree is likely to be injured, though not seriously, by early frost, 

 while the Rocky Mountain form is not affected by low temperatures. Because the Pacific slope, or 

 green-leafed, tree produces the better quality of timber, this form appears to be preferred as a forest tree 



