170 OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



abundant and telling. Once when I was collect- 

 ing flowers of the red silver fir near a summer 

 tourist resort on the mountains above Lake Ta- 

 hoe, I carried a handful of flowery branches to 

 the boarding house, where they quickly attracted 

 a wondering, admiring crowd of men, women, 

 and children. " Oh, where did you get these ? " 

 they cried. "How pretty they are — mighty 

 handsome — just too lovely for anything — where 

 do they grow ? " " On the commonest trees 

 about you," I replied. " You are now standing 

 beside one of them, and it is in full bloom ; look 

 up." And I pointed to a blossom-laden Abies 

 magnifica, about a hundred and twenty feet high, 

 in front of the house, used as a hitching post. 

 And seeing its beauty for the first time, their 

 wonder could hardly have been greater or more 

 sincere had their silver fir hitching post blossomed 

 for them at that moment as suddenly as Aaron's 

 rod. 



The mountain hemlock extends an almost con- 

 tinuous belt along the Sierra and northern ranges 

 to Prince William's Sound, accompanied part of 

 the way by the pines ; our two silver firs, to 

 Mount Shasta, thence the fir belt is continued 

 through Oregon, Washington, and British Colum- 

 bia by four other species, Abies nobilis, grandis, 

 amabilis, and lasiocarpa ; while the magnificent 

 Sitka spruce, with large, bright, purple flowers, 

 adorns the coast region from California to Cook's 



