THE DOUGLAS FIR 99 
disc the Abies leaves behind, but instead an oval 
scar on the top of a little projection. 
The resin canals are as the Abies, two in number 
and marginally placed. The fibro-vascular bundle, 
too, is single. Other points of comparison and 
characteristics are given upon the opposite page, 
but we might further mention that the Colorado 
variety is generally known to foresters by its shape, 
more trustworthy evidence than judgment by colour, 
which is formed by ascending branches into a more 
bushlike plant. One crux, it may be pointed out 
here, that planters have to contend with in laying out 
woods of Douglas Firs, and it is this: the lower 
branches of these trees are so obstinately robust that 
they refuse to subject themselves to any of those self- 
sacrificing ordinances of self-pruning that are so 
essential to the well-being of their trunk system in 
after days. The question then arises, in face of this 
rather disheartening characteristic, What is the best 
distance apart to plant? If called in to prescribe we 
should suggest a distance of five feet. 
The Oregon variety was first discovered, so history 
reads, by Dr. Archibald Menzies in 1791. He first 
found it in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Van- 
couver Island. It was introduced in 1827 by the 
ill-fated traveller David Douglas, and the tree 
having been tossed about by the call of men from 
name to name—to wit, Red Spruce, Yellow Fir, Paget 
Sound Pine--finally settled down and took unto 
itself the enduring title of Douglas. David Douglas, 
the nominator, met a tragic end in the Sandwich 
Islands in 1833. His mutilated body was found in a 
trap-pit contrived to catch wild cattle. He was 
precipitated into a pit occupied by a still alive horned 
inmate. The rest of the story shall be silence. 
The other variety generally alluded to as the 
Colorado Douglas was first found by Dr. C. C. Parry 
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