96 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
a trunk three feet through. Its branches are large and spread- 
ing, the leaves 2 foot long and pale sea-green in color; the 
cones seventeen inches long, seven inches through, and like a 
sugar-loaf in shape. 
§ 69. Firs.—The red fir, or Douglas spruce (Abies douglasit), 
is a tree of very large size, growing to be three hundred feet 
high and ten feet thick in the trunk. It is, as Dr. Newberry 
says, “one of the grandest of the group of giants which com- 
bine to form the forests of the West.” The wood is strong, 
but coarse and uneven in grain; the layers of each years 
growth being soft on one side and very hard on the other. 
The timber is much used for rough work in houses, and for 
ship-building. The tree grows in dense forests on the Sierra 
Nevada and Cascade Mountains, from 35° to 49°, and near the 
coast north of 39°. 
The yellow-fir or Williamson’s spruce (Abies williamsonii) 
bears a close resemblance to the red fir, and the two trees are 
usually found in company with each other. 
The black fir (Abies menziesii) is smaller and of little value. 
The Abies bracheata (Santa Lucia fir) grows in the Santa 
Lucia mountains. The height is about one hundred feet, the 
shape a perfect cone, the lowest branches resting on the ground. 
The tree produces a resin used by the Catholic priests for in- 
cense. 
The Western balsam-fir (Picea grandis), or white fir, attains 
a height of one hundred and fifty feet, and a diameter of seven 
feet in the trunk. The bark on the trunks of the young trees 
contains numerous cysts full of the resinous fluid called the 
balsam of fir. 
§ 70. Cedars.——The Western juniper, or cedar (Juniperus 
occidentalis), bears a strong resemblance to the juniper (Jw 
niperus virginianus) of the Eastern states. Its wood, however, 
is white in color. It grows to be about thirty fect high. The 
wood of a juniper-tree found near the quicksilver mines of New 
Idria is so hard and fine in texture, that it would probably be 
valuable to engravers. 
