PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 155 
FOSSIL FORESTS OF COLORADO. 
I visited the petrified forests of Florisant, Teller County, Colorado, in 
August, 1900. They are situated two miles from the station of the Colorado 
Midland Railroad, in a valley a mile or so in diameter which seems at a 
former period to have been a lake. The petrifactions consist entirely of 
stumps, there were no logs, and are upon the higher slopes surrounding the 
valley. The character of the wood is well preserved in the stone, the bark, 
knots and wood are very perfect, showing the trees to have been some form 
of a cedar; they much resemble thuja gigantea of Washington. (In 1884 
PETRIFIED FORESTS 
I measured a thuja gigantea near Mount Baker which was sixty-five feet in 
circumference and 265 feet in height.) There have been great numbers of 
these fossilized stumps, but all save one have been carried away by col- 
lectors, only scattered clippings remain where they were broken up for 
removal. I carefully measured the one remaining stump and counted the 
annual growths. It was at the time forty-five feet six inches girth, but much 
had been broken off and removed; originally it was eighteen feet in diameter 
and nine feet high. Five saws are fastened in the stone where vandals en- 
deavored to saw it into sections for removal. There are seven and one-half 
yearly growths to an inch radius, the tree having required 1,620 years to 
