SPRUCE AND BALSAM FIR TREES. 39 
This author later believed it to be a distinct species, and in 1897 pub- 
lished the name " Abies shastensis." A long and careful field study 
of this tree has convinced the writer, however, that it is only a 
varietal form of Abies magnifica. 
DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS. 
Abies magnifica is a tree of stately dimensions, ranging from 125 
to 175 feet in height, or very exceptionally 200 feet or more, and from 
30 to 50 inches in diameter; trees from 60 to 80 inches in diameter 
are rather rare. Much larger trees are said to have been found, but 
the writer has never seen them. Abies magnifica shastensis occurs 
only at high elevations where conditions for growth are much less 
favorable than within the main vertical range of the species, so that 
it rarely exceeds 125 feet in height and 3 feet in diameter. In close 
stands at lower elevations the trunks of large trees are straight and 
slightly tapering. Smaller trees on high exposed slopes are often 
conspicuously and permanently bent down the slope at their base, 
as a result of heavy snows which yearly force the seedlings to the 
ground. Their later struggle to regain an upright position never 
wholly rids the trees of this basal bend in the trunk, which remains 
a mark of early vicissitudes. 
The bark of young Shasta red fir trees is smooth and conspicuously 
chalky white, as it is also on the upper stem and branches of old 
trees, while on the lower trunks of older trees it is rough with deep 
furrows and narrow, rounded ridges. It varies in thickness from 
2 to 3 inches according to the size of the tree. The main vertical 
ridges of the bark are irregularly divided by diagonal furrows, 
which give a peculiar zigzag appearance to the bark. Externally 
the rough bark of old trunks is a deep purplish-brown and a bright 
purple-brown within. No other fir tree in this region has bark 
similar in any particular to this. 
The crown of old forest grown trees is a short, very narrow, round- 
topped cone, sometimes almost cylindrical. The short branches 
droop except at the top of the crown, where they trend upward. 
The crown is noticeably open, due to the fact that the circles or 
whorls of branches grow from the trunk at rather wide and regular 
intervals. Only in the densest stands are medium-size trees clear of 
branches for half or more of their length. In the high, fairly dense 
Pacific Slope forests many trees bear straggling branches nearly to 
the ground. At high elevations, too, the brittle tops are often 
broken off by wind, when the lost member is replaced by the upward 
growth of one or two side branches, which soon assume the form and 
place of leaders. Broken and repaired crowns of this type are 
familiar sights on wind-swept slopes inhabited by this fir. Young 
