7^ 



PINACE^. 



GiGANTABIES TaXIFOLIA : The Yew-leaved Giant Fir. 



Flowers, male and female, on the same plant, but separate; generally 

 solitary and terminal. 



Leaves, the cotyledons, (seed-leaves,) generally tioo, exceptionally 

 three or more ; the perfect leaves are various- — those on the main stems 

 or leading shoots, distant, strong, and acute-pointed ; those on the cone 

 or flower-bearing branches, close and thickly set, small, short, some- 

 what imbricated or closely spiral ; those on the lateral branches, linear, 

 straight, flat, leathery, persistent, somewhat blunt-pointed, and more 

 or less irregularly disposed, in two horizontal rows on the stems ; 

 shining, smooth, and green above, and more or less channelled, silvery- 

 banded, and glaucous green below : of various sizes, — ranging from 

 one-eighth of an inch to one-and-a-half inches in length. 



Cones, egg-shaped, rounded at base and apex; solitary and terminal, 

 and from half an inch to one-and-a-half inches long : scales from one 

 to two dozen to a perfect cone, irregularly shaped, — angular, wedge- 

 formed, keeled, grooved, rough, and wrinkled : the seeds are also 

 variously shaped and winged, and from two to six under each 

 scale. 



This tree is a native of the JS'orth-West. The earliest published 

 accounts of it that I have are by ^'Menzies," who records its existence 

 in 1796. "Douglas" in 1836 mentions it, but for its introduction into 

 this country we are indebted to the Eussians, who sent it us about 

 two dozen years ago ; it has recently been found plentiful in CaHfornia, 

 particularly on the Santa Cruz range, where " Hartweg " found that its 

 average height was two hundred feet, with trunks from one-and-a-half 

 to two dozen feet in circumference, straight, and clear of boughs for 

 sixty feet from ground ; and one tree, called by the American settlers, 

 "The Giant of the Forest," was two hundred and seventy feet in 

 height, and fifty-five feet in circumference, at two yards from ground. 

 Specimens of its timber have been exhibited as horizontal slabs fifteen 

 feet in diameter, and showing more than one thousand ring growths, 

 which has been taken as indicating its age ; but, as I have already 

 stated, this theoretical rule, like most others, has its exceptions ; and 

 this is one of those firs, which, from their peculiar mode of growth, 

 making several and successive growths in a season, the ring-growths 

 cannot be relied upon in determining, or even correctly conjecturing 

 the age of the tree from its concentric rings. 



Its timber is close-grained, short-fibred, and very brittle, light, and 

 not durable, unless kept dry or preserved by paint, yet it is not subject 



