SO LIT ARES 
OTHER PITCH TREES 
The rest of the Pitch Trees of the Cone¬ 
bearing family are peculiar and easily recog¬ 
nized. The problem is greatly simplified at 
the outset by the elimination of two genera 
not found in California, except in cultivation, 
—the true Cedar ( Cednis ) and the true Larch 
or Tamarack ( Larix ). 
The other groups, the Spruces and Firs, 
are represented in abundance in America, and 
especially in California, by trees often of great 
size and value. The leaves of both are soli¬ 
tary and short; the cones with thin, flat, un¬ 
armed scales. 
FEATHER-CONE SPRUCES 
If one should be traveling in the mountains 
of California, and should come upon trees 
with long, gracefully declining branches, bear¬ 
ing on the outer margins numerous small 
brown cones, which when open are about the 
size of a hen’s egg, and decorated with long, 
flat, three-toothed, feather-like bracts, protrud¬ 
ing a half inch from between the scales, he 
might be sure that he was in the regal pres¬ 
ence of a Douglas Spruce (Pseudotsuga taxi- 
folia). Forming the greater part of the dense 
forest about Puget Sound, where they become 
350 to 450 feet high—the tallest trees in the 
world—they spread down along the Rocky 
Mountains and the ranges of California to 
Arizona. Douglas Spruce (improperly called 
by lumber dealers “Oregon Pine” and “Red 
Fir”) constitutes the major part of the out¬ 
put of the scores of great mills in the north¬ 
west, now the richest lumber region of the 
world. No tree is more utilized for all pur- 
