34 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. [No. 16. 
monly growing in narrow lines. The trees are rarely more than 50 
feet in height, and most of them are much smaller. They bear a mar- 
velous load of slender curved cones, which on the limbs grow close 
together in whorls or rows, and on the trunks are scattered or grow in 
circles. They remain on the trees for many years, as in the case of 
few other species, and their large size, extraordinary numbers, and 
peculiar arrangement give the tree a singular and unusual appearance. 
Vernon Bailey has given me the following note on some knobcone 
pines examined by him on Panther Creek, September 27, 1898: 
The trees were loaded with coues, in whorls of three to seven around the branches, 
and down the trunks to 10 or 12 feet from the ground. Some of the cones must have 
been 20 or 30 years old, and perhaps much older. I cut off a lot of the old lower 
cones to see if the seeds were good, and put them on a bowlder and cracked them 
with a few hard blows of the ax. All of them were full of worm dust, with only 
now and then an undiscovered seed or a fat white worm. Cones of medium age (5 
or 6 years back from the end of the branch) were invariably oceupicd by worms and 
worm dust, and usually contained few good seeds. Cones only 1 or 2 years old 
were rarely wormy. A great many of the old cones had been dug into by wood- 
peckers, either for seeds or, more likely, for the fat white grubs that live on the 
seeds. The cones are too hard to be broken or split apart by the woodpeckers, and 
are opened by a smooth hole drilled into the middle, or sometimes to the opposite 
wall. Usually the opening is long and narrow. Sometimes the whole inside of the 
cone has been drilled ont, leaving only the shell; sometimes a small round hole has 
been drilled just through the outer shell. 
WHITE Fir (Abies concolor loiwiana.)—The white fir ranges from 
Sisson, at the bottom of the west slope of Shasta, up to the lower edge of 
the Shasta fir belt, which it slightly overlaps. At Wagon Camp (fig. 1, 
alt. 5,700 feet) both species ure common. The white fir requires more 
moisture than the other conifers of the lower timber belt, and con- 
sequently its distribution is discontinuous. It is most abundant along 
the well-watered eastern base of Mount Eddy, north of Sisson. The 
highest elevation at which it was observed is a warm ridge on the 
east side of Mud Creek Canyon, between the mouths of Mud and Clear 
creeks, where, with a number of other Transition zone species, it occurs 
at an altitude of 6,700 to 7,000 feet. This is 1,000 feet above its usual 
limit, and its presence here is due to the angle and steepness of the 
slope, as explained elsewhere (p. 49). 
Abies lowiana is easily distinguished from A. shastensis and A. mag- 
nifica by the bark, which is very thick and deeply furrowed, so that it 
resembles that of Douglas spruce (Pseudotsuga mucronata) much more 
closely than that of the other Abies of the region. The cone scales are 
broad and rather short, and the bract is short and tricuspidate (fig. 19). 
DouGLAS FIR OR SPRUCE (Pseudotsuga mucronata).—Douglas fir is 
scattered irregularly through the ponderosa pine forest. Like the white 
fir, it prefers a moister soil than suits the ponderosa pines, and there- 
fore thrives best in the gulches and near the streams. Thus along the 
cool well-watered east base of Scott Mountains the forest consists mainly 
of Douglas and white firs, with scattered incense cedars and sugar 
