149 



CHAPTER XXII. 



CEDARS AND OTHER FOREST TREES. 



Next, we will take our cedar: Libocedrus Decurrens. The first 

 or generic name means "Incense cedar." This name is derived from 

 the fragrance of the wood when cut into. The second name is due to 

 the small scale-like leaves, which are decurrent. The foliage is flat 

 and massed, of a bright green livened up with yellow tendencies. The 

 hark is light brownish yellow, deeply furrowed and thick. The tree 

 is striking, and has no close relative in our Sierra. The incense 

 cedar, once seen, cannot be confused with any other local tree. 



The spruces are represented in the California forest reserves only 

 by the genera Pseudotsuga and Tsuga, or hemlocks; the first by two, 

 the latter by one spscies. The spruces can be distinguished from the 

 firs by the position of the cones on the branches; in the former they 

 are pendant near the ends of the branches; in the latter they stand 

 upright and are mostly lateral. Moreover, the scales of the spruce 

 cones adhere to the axis long after maturity, and even for several 

 years. The cone scales of firs fall as soon as ripe — in September or 

 October. 



Peeudotsuga is characterized by a straight and perfectly erect 

 leader or terminal shoot, by leaves which spread every way from the 

 stem, and large cones (three to six inches usually), whose three-lobed 

 sharp-pointed bracts project beyond each rounded cone scale. The 

 hemlocks or Tsugas are much more graceful trees, whose terminal 

 shoots, especially in younger trees, are slender and recurved-droop- 

 ing, whose leaves are in two nearly opposite rows on the stem, mak- 

 ing usually a flatfish branch, and whose cones are smaller than Pseudo- 

 tsuga cones (one to two and one-half inches), never with projecting 

 bracts. Both of the above genera have short-stalked leaves, while 

 the Piceas, or true spruces, represented in California by the Sitka spruce 

 and the weeping spruce, in the northwest part of the State, have no 

 stalks to the leaves. 



The only hemlock of the reservations is the alpine species, Tsuga 

 mertensiana (formerly T. Pattoniana) occurring near timber-line in 

 small groves from Mt. Tallac to the head-waters of Kings river. It 



