LET’S KNOW SOME TREES 1] 
leaves are longer and flatter on the lower branches, but shorter, closer 
set, and more silvery on the young high branches. 
The bristlecone fir is one of the rarest of California’s true firs. 
Scattered patches of it grow mainly in Monterey County at the heads 
of canyons on the seaward slopes of the Santa Lucia Mountains. 
The sharply pointed, spirelike crowns are so distinctive that the 
trees can be recognized among its associates several miles away. So 
also its long, flat, keenly pointed, lustrous leaves and its egg-shaped 
cones bristling with slender needlelike bracts are ready means of 
distinguishing this beautiful fir. 
F 47868 
FIGURE 9.—Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga tazifolia) 
The Douglas fir (fig. 9), the most valuable timber tree of Wash- 
ington and Oregon (the “Oregon pine” of commerce), occurs in 
small groups or Iningled with other species in the California moun- 
tains, as does the closely allied bigcone spruce. The bark is thick, 
furrowed, and smoky brown, and is used to some extent in tanning. 
The leaves are flat and slightly 9 grooved and are usually deep yellow 
green, although in exposed dry areas (especially in the Rocky Moun- 
tains) they are often bluish. All of the limbs have long, drooping 
branchlets. The cones, 2 to 21% inches long, have prominent, project- 
ing, 3-pointed bracts, which are of great assistance in identification. 
