132 
MENZIES’S SPRUCE FIR. 
This beautiful and very distinct species of Fir was dis- 
covered by Mr. Douglas on the northern limits of Cali- 
fornia, and we found it to constitute the principal part of 
the lofty and dark forest which caps the summit of Cape 
Disappointment at the entrance of the Columbia or Oregon. 
The branches have an unusual degree of rigidity, and 
are quite remarkable, when divested of their foliage, (which 
is exceedingly deciduous,) for the elevated bases of the 
leaves with which they are so singularly clad and muri- 
cated. The leaves are unusually short, curved, and almost 
equally spread all round the branch, they have also an 
abrupt point, and are truncated and articulated to the 
tubercles of the branch. The cones are very elegant, with 
loose, leaf-like, persistent, thin scales, irregularly torn on 
the edges, the bracteoles are not externally visible, small, 
and acuminated. The seeds are also small. 
Douglas describes the wood of this species as being of 
an excellent quality. Plants were raised in the vicinity of 
London, at the Horticultural Society’s Garden in the year 
1832. In 1838, a plant in that Garden was nearly 3 feet 
high, and it is propagated by cuttings. 
Plate CXVI. 
A branch of the natural size with the cone, a . The scale, b. The seed. 
