THE GREAT WASHINGTON ci;i>AK. 23 



swoop upwards in one grand triumphant air of sublime alti- 

 tude, their bright and burniug arms aloft, appealing to Jove's 

 high throne in the heavens. The lesser and more massed 

 branches accumulate above in ever-refreshing variety, in- 

 sphering the upper body, and crowning the venerable domed 

 head and massive brow in a halo of softer, serener glory. 

 Fragments of special foliage in rounded or varied tufts and 

 touches, tiny buttoned bouquets of beauty, as it were, pinned 

 on gracefully here and there for effect, to foil herculean 

 brawn — so in least as in largest, to fill and soothe the sense; 

 the tiny, tender, slender, and delicate little sprigs e'en hiding 

 the finishing hand that gives the final touch of the Great 

 Artist, forcible reminder of the light gauzy texture lines of 

 the finest figures of our earth-born artists; but these drawn 

 by hallowed hands on the celestial canvas— pictures of inim- 

 itable grace and beauty graven on the blue tablet of the 

 skies. But what should be said of that great behemoth-like 

 hide of bright cinnamon brown bark, in massive mantle 

 folds one to two feet thick of lightly compacted shreddy 

 fibres, darker on the shady side, or in youth and early prime 

 tinted in royal purple, nay, crimson-fired in the lingering 

 smiles of the western sun's adieu. Then behold it flowing 

 into large deep water-line troughs, as it were, careering 

 silently on a smooth bed adown the mountain height, until 

 broadening and free they serenely glide into their great 

 earthy sea. 



The hue of young trees becomes of somewhat soft invisible 

 sea-green or delicate bloomy tint, but when the venerable 

 foliage ripens into its golden age of glory, becomes yellowish- 

 green. From noting the foliage in a general way, if more 

 closely inspected, the leaves are awl-pointed and boat-keeled 

 on the back, lapping one over the other in a scale-like way, 

 loosely, as it were, alternating or spirally in four rows, and 

 so passing around the ultimate sprays. Flowers on the tips 

 of twigs, tiny pollen ones globoid. When cone-bearing 

 forests are in bloom, the gentle rolling breezes waft the 

 golden or yellow-folded clouds of pollen everywhere among 

 the trees, or in this genus and firs, lighter or spirited aloft, 

 the pollen-clouds drift along high up over common tree 

 tops ; nor have firs any fruit save on their tip-tops. This 

 sulphur-like dust is often carried by storms afar, and, pre- 

 cipitated by rains, marking margins of pools, foot-prints, 

 and ruts of roads. Cones, egg-form, two by one and one half 

 inches, thick shield scales, diamond r disked or obliquely 

 trapezoidal, roughly puckered, the radiating wrinkles in- 

 drawn by the quilted center-point, laterally transverse ridged, 

 the concealed part broadly wedge-shape, strongly persisting; 

 seeds, three to five to each scale, slightly oblong or subrhom- 

 bic circuloid, being obliquely wing-margined ; the middle 



