December 29, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest; 



5i7 



Creek; abundant on Huckleberry Mountain ; sparingly on 

 a mountain spur between Crater Lake and Diamond Lake ; 

 abundant on the slopes of Mount Thielson and Old Bailey ; 

 occasionally along the trail from Diamond Lake northward 

 into the headwaters of the Umpqua ; abundant on the south 

 slope of the Calapooia Mountains near their junction with 

 the Cascades, and sparingly on their north slope ; occa- 

 sionally on the lower slopes of Diamond Peak, between 

 Summit and Crescent lakes, and on the lower divide 

 between the latter and Odell Lake ; and lastly, on the 

 mountain east of Odell Lake and south of Davis Lake. At 

 this point we turned eastward away from the main moun- 

 tain chain, but the tree doubtless occurs at least a few miles 

 farther north. 



In the Cascade Mountains the Shasta Fir belt has an 

 elevation of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet and the tree is usually 

 associated with Tsuga Pattonii, growing chiefly in the 

 lower part of the Pattonii belt, but it often also crosses the 

 Pinus Murrayana belt and sometimes overlaps on its lower 

 side the uppermost edge of the Pinus ponderosa belt. 



In its best development, as, for example, on Huckleberry 

 Mountain and near the summit of the Fort Klamath- 

 Rogue River Road, it is a superb tall tree of magnificent pro- 

 portions, easily the queen of the forest. Its common height 

 is from 150 to 200 feet and its trunk diameter three or four 

 feet. The trunks of two large, but by no means extraordinary 

 trees near the lower camping-ground at Crater Lake 

 measured fifteen feet seven inches and fifteen feet eight 

 inches in circumference about four feet from the ground. 

 The crown of a mature tree is narrowly oblong in outline, 

 usually equaling from one-half to two-thirds the total height 

 of the tree, supported on a straight, only slightly tapering, 

 branchless trunk, from forty to seventy-five feet in height. 

 The bark is of a reddish gray color on the outside, is regu- 

 larly and rather deeply fissured, and within has the color of 

 Hemlock-bark in alternating layers of dark red and reddish 

 brown. The branchlets are extremely symmetrical in their 

 ultimate ramifications, so that one standing beneath a tree 

 can always distinguish it by this feature alone from A. 

 lasiocarpa, concolor, grandis or amabilis. The large cones, 

 described in detail below, sit erect upon the branches, 

 and are continually suggestive of little owls. 



In general appearance trees of Abies nobilis and Abies 

 Shastensis are to me indistinguishable, though a more inti- 

 mate acquaintance with them might discover some gross 

 differences. The cones of the two trees, though very simi- 

 lar, can always be distinguished by one familiar with both. 

 The cone of A. nobilis is the slenderer of the two, measure- 

 ments of the specimens of five collectors giving an average 

 length of 133 millimeters, and an average thickness of fifty- 

 seven millimeters, giving a ratio of 2.33 — in short, a typical, 

 well-developed cone is noticeably more than twice as long 

 as broad. In A. Shastensis, cones from six different places 

 give an average of 131 millimeters in length by seventy 

 millimeters in breadth, a ratio of 1.87, indicating that they 

 are usually a little less than twice as long as broad. The cone 

 scales of A. Shastensis are usually from thirty to thirty-five 

 millimeters broad and the seeds about thirteen millimeters 

 long, these measurements in those of A. nobilis being about 

 twenty to twenty-five millimeters and ten millimeters, re- 

 spectively. In external appearance the cones differ also in 

 another way. The exposed portion of the bract is usually 

 longer and more inclined to be obcordate in A. nobilis, and 

 is abruptly reflexed and appressed to the surface of the cone, 

 thus usually completely covering the scales. The awns of the 

 bracts, above the marginal serrations, are commonly five to 

 seven millimeters long. In A. Shastensis the awn is two to 

 three millimeters long, and the shorter exposed part of the 

 bract, seldom retuse at the apex, is rather loosely recurved, 

 so that a considerable portion of the surface of the cone is 

 commonly visible. 



Probably the best diagnostic character of the tree, how- 

 ever, is in the leaves. Unfortunately, good series of the 

 lower leaves of the two species are not accessible, but those 

 of the upper branches, broken dead twigs from which can 



almost always be found underneath the trees, have been 

 examined in quantity. In both species these leaves are 

 thick, stiff, upwardly curved, keeled on the lower surface, 

 and often, especially on cone-bearing branches, sharp- 

 pointed. On the upper surface of the leaves of A. nobilis 

 there is, however, a sharply defined, narrow groove, while in 

 those of A. Shastensis the upper surface is keeled like the 

 lower, the cross-section therefore being rhomboidal like 

 that of a Picea. The groove in the leaf of A. nobilis does 

 not always reach all the way to the apex, and sometimes in 

 the leaves situated along the middle of the upper surface of 

 the twig, and therefore without lateral curvature, it is en- 

 tirely wanting, but in the outside leaves of the twig it is 

 invariably present. 



Abies nobilis is primarily a tree of the Cascade Moun- 

 tains, the locality best and longest known for it being 

 Mount Hood. It has been known for several years to 

 extend as far north along the Cascades as Mount Ranier, 

 and now it is reported by Mr. A. J. Johnson, of Astoria, 

 Oregon, as occurring on Mount Baker in extreme northern 

 Washington, close to the British boundary. Southward 

 along the Cascades in Oregon we found it as far as Browder 

 Ridge, on the northernmost headwaters of the Mackenzie, 

 an affluent of the Willamette. This is about fifty miles 

 north of the northernmost point at which we found Abies 

 Shastensis. Our route between these two points lay wholly 

 on the eastern slope of the Cascades, but examination of 

 the western slope in this region will undoubtedly show that 

 the range of the two species approaches much more closely, 

 if they do not, indeed, actually meet. Mr. Johnson has also 

 reported it from the coast mountains of south-western 

 Washington.* The tree grows here, I am informed by Mr. 

 B. E. Fernow, at ai?-elevation of usually 1,500 to 3,000 

 feet, sometimes extending as low as 500 feet, as, for exam- 

 ple, on the north slope of the divide between Grays River 

 and Skamokawa River, about four miles from the sea. 



By a strange misapplication of names, the history of which 

 I do not know, the name Larch is applied by the lumbermen 

 of Washington and Oregon to both Abies nobilis and Abies 

 Shastensis, but I could find no evidence that the two are dis- 

 tinguished by them. Both are considered valuable for lum- 

 ber, though from the high elevation at which they grow, 

 and their consequent inaccessibility forthe most part, neither 

 has as yet come into the lumber market in large amount. 



Though it is several years since I had the opportunity of 

 observing Abies magnifica in the high Sierra Nevada of 

 California, I recall it as a tree of the same magnificent pro- 

 portions as A. nobilis and A. Shastensis, with the same deep 

 red color of the bark within and the same geometrical regu- 

 larity of the twigs. From an examination of abundant 

 herbarium material I coincide with the view expressed by 

 Dr. Engelmann and implied by Mr. Lemmon that it is with 

 this tree rather than with A. nobilis that A. Shastensis is 

 the more intimately related. Indeed, in size and relative di- 

 mensions of the cone, in the size of the scales and seeds, and 

 in the character of the leaves the two seem to be indistin- 

 guishable, the only tangible character being the conspicu- 

 ous one of protrusion or inclusion of the bracts on the 

 cone-scales. Intergradation is not to be expected between 

 A. Shastensis and A. nobilis, though it may hereafter be 

 found between A. Shastensis and A. magnifica. 



Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. C J. Coville. 



Recent Publications. 



Insect-Life ; An Introduction to Nature-Study and a Guide 

 for Teachers, Students and 0:hers Interested in Out-of-door 

 Life. By John Henry Comstock. New York : D. Apple- 

 ton & Co. 1897. 



In this admirable text-book the needs of the beginner in 



* Abies nobilis was found in August, 1S06. in the valley of the Solduc River on 

 the northern slope of the Olympic Mountains in Washington, by Professor Sargent, 

 and was also noticed by Dr. E. Hart Mcrriam during the past summer in the some 

 locality. 



