Mountain Hemlock. Tsuga mcrtensiana. 
Leaves with typical distinct leaf stem and growing 
from all sides of twig, plumper and blunter than 
western hemlock and lacking the ashy under surface. 
Cones about 2 inches long and three-fourths inch 
thick when mature, usually pendulous. Bark blue- 
gray, deeply furrowed and ridged. Wood line-grained 
soft, and light, used for railroad ties in the Cook 
Inlet region, where mountain hemlock grows close to 
tidewater and partly loses its dwarfed appearance. 
Mountain hemlock grows in low muskegs as well as 
on alpine slopes on the ocean side of the coast range 
from Dixon's entrance to Cook Inlet. In the region 
of Cook Inlet it appears on better drained slopes with 
better form. It is usually short, from 30 to 60 feet 
tall, and 10 to 20 inches in diameter, with marked 
taper; on better sites it may reach 100 feet in height, 
with a corresponding increase in diameter. 
Alpine Fir. Abies lasiocarpa. 
Leaves dark green, long, flat, and blunt on the lower 
branches, pointed and stiff near the top, where they 
mass themselves on the upper sides of the twigs. 
Cones 2J£ to 4 inches long and 1% inches in diameter. 
Cone scales fall from central stalk at maturity, so that 
old cones are not found on or under trees. Bark ash 
gray, thin, hard, and flinty. Wood line-grained and 
soft, but usually knotty because of the many per- 
sistent branches. 
The tree grows in the cool, moist subalpine slopes 
near timber line, although it is found in the valley 
floors as well. A long spirelike crown is character- 
istic. Occurring largely on the east side of the coast 
range in Canada and southeastern Alaska, Alpine fir 
crosses the divide at Lynn Canal, and may bo found 
at sea level near Chilkoot and White Pass, through 
the Cooper River Valley and eastward, also at Very 
Inlet, head of Portland Canal, and Boca dc Quadra. 
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