ABIES DOTTGLAStl. 121 



The parent plant growing at "Woolverston - Park, near Ipswich, the 

 seat of John Berners, Esq., is an exceedingly picturesque tree, upwards 

 of 50 feet high; the diameter of the spread of its branches, near the 

 ground, is only 10 feet, or about one-fourth of that of trees of the 

 usual habit of the same height. 



Abies Douglasii Standishii.— A remarkable variety, raised from 

 English saved seed gathered from a Douglas Fir growing in close 

 proximity to some large Silver Firs. It has the habit and general 

 aspect of the species, but the leaves are larger, deeper green above 

 and quite silvery beneath, like those of a Silver Fir. 



It originated in the Nursery of the late Mr. Standish at Ascot. 



Abies Douglasii taxifolia is a variety found in Oregon, and, 

 according to some writers, also on the Eeal del Monte in Mexico. 

 The branches are stouter than those of A. Douglasii, and the leaves 

 longer. It does not attain more than half the height of the species, 

 and the habit of the largest specimens growing in England is more 

 broadly pyramidal, and the general aspect darker and more massive. 



Abies Douglasii is one of the most important of Coniferous trees as 

 regards its economic properties, but, owing to the remoteness of the 

 forests in which it abounds, its value cannot yet be said to have been 

 much developed beyoncl the limits of its habitat. " The timber is heavy, 

 firm, and of as deep a colour as the Yew, with very few knots, and 

 not in the least liable to warp.* It is clean grained, strong, elastic, 

 and acquires large dimensions in unequal climates ; t it is very resinous, 

 and forms excellent firewood even when green ; in dead trees, the 

 bark and wood are often so full of resin as to burn like a torch, 

 and from its combustability extensive tracts of forest get burnt every 

 year. % The amount of timber on one acre in the forest of Douglas Fir 

 near the mouth of the "Willamette, very much exceeds that of a 

 similar area in the tropics. Were it not that vegetable tissues will 

 burn readily, the immense mass of it that encumbers the surface of an 

 ordinary farm on the banks of the Columbia, would bid defiance to 

 any efforts that one man could make for its removal during the time 

 of his natural life. § The British public have had, for some years 

 past, an opportunity of forming an idea of the stupendous dimensions 

 attained by this tree. In the Koyal Gardens at Kew is erected a 

 flagstaff of Douglas Fir, brought from Vancouver's Island. It consists of 



* Dr. Lindley in English Cyclopaedia, p. 12. 



t Idem, in Gafdenefs' Chronicle, 1862, p. 451. 



J Lawson's Finetwm BrUanwkwm, A. Douglasii, p. 3. 



§ Dr. Newberry; Pacific Railitiay Report, p. 55. 



