NORTH AMERICAN FORESTRY. 



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It does not descend below something like 4000 feet, seldom even so 

 low as this, the Larch that one meets with in Eastern Canada at low 

 elevations being Larix microcarpa {—americana) , a tree which never 

 attains to a large size, though it furnishes in the aggregate a great 

 quantity of useful timber. As this Larch grows better on marshy 

 land than almost any other Conifer, it is possible that it might be of 

 some value in Britain for planting on bog land. 



The western slope of the Rocky Mountains and the Selkirk Ranges 

 do not contain many members of the genus Pinus, but a fairly common 

 one is P. moniicola, a near relative of the Weymouth Pine, and in 

 Europe suffering even more from Peridermium Strohi. At high 

 altitudes one meets with P. fiexilis and P. alhicaiilis, which are little 

 more than bushes near the timber line, and in no case reach large 

 dimensions. Among the commonest trees on the western side of the 

 Rockies is the Western Hemlock [Tsuga heterophylla=Alberiiana) 

 and its near relative Tsuga Mertensiana (=Pattoniana). The former 

 is one of the most graceful of Conifers, and makes excellent growth 

 in many parts of the British Isles, where, as in its native habitat, 

 it reproduces itself very freely from self-sown seed. The timber, 

 however, is not of high quality, being in this respect surpassed by 

 both Spruce and Pine. 



A tree everywhere in evidence as one gets westwards from the 

 Rocky Mountains watershed is the so-called Red Cedar [Thuya plicata 

 — gigantea), which sometimes attains to gigantic proportions, as in 

 the specimens — some growing, some dead — in Stanley Park, close to 

 Vancouver City. This tree grows well in the British Isles, where, 

 however, there is not likely to be much demand for Red Cedar timber 

 for the particular purpose for which it is most used in America, namely, 

 the manufacture of roofing shingles. In the eastern part of Canada 

 roofing material is furnished by Thuya occidentalis , but in the west 

 it is Thuya plicata which furnishes this particular building require- 

 ment, and it is not too much to say that almost all the houses on the 

 Pacific slope are rendered rainproof by means of this timber. Not 

 only so, but great quantities are sent eastwards to be used in the 

 prairie cities of Calgary, Edmonton, Moose Jaw, Medicine Hat, and 

 Winnipeg. 



At no great distance from the Pacific coast one finds the Sitka 

 Spruce, a tree that is rapidly growing in favour for afforestation 

 purposes in Britain, where in time it is not unlikely to supplant the 

 Norway Spruce. But the tree which is by far the most important on 

 the Canadian Pacific slopes, and for the matter of that in many parts 

 of the west of the United States also, is the Douglas Fir, which is 

 yearly commanding an increasing amount of attention from lumber- 

 men. This species covers enormous areas in the Selkirks and on 

 Vancouver Island, spreading northwards into the Yukon and south- 

 wards through a large part of the Western United States as far south 

 as Mexico. The quantity of timber growing on an acre often runs 

 to an enormous volume, but it would not appear that the Douglas Fir 



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