Fig. 46
Leaves, rounded and rarely emarginate at apex, dark yellow-green, lustrous and obscurely grooved especially toward the base on the upper surface, marked on the lower surface by 5 or 6 rows of stomata on each side of the low broad midrib, ⅓′—⅔′ long, about1/16′ wide, deciduous in their third season from dark orange-colored persistent bases.Flowers: male light yellow; female pale green, with broad bracts coarsely laciniate on the margins and shorter than their scales.Fruiton slender puberulous stalks often ¼′ long, ovoid, acute, ½′—¾′ long, with broad-obovate scales almost as wide as long, and broad truncate bracts slightly laciniate on the margins, opening and gradually losing their seeds duringthe winter and mostly persistent on the branches until the following spring;seeds1/16′ long, usually with 2 or 3 large oil-vesicles, nearly half as long as their wings broad at the base and gradually tapering to the rounded apex.
A tree, usually 60°—70°, and occasionally 100° high, with a trunk 2°—4° in diameter, gradually and conspicuously tapering toward the apex, long slender horizontal or pendulous branches, persistent until overshadowed by other trees, and forming a broad-based rather obtuse pyramid, and slender light yellow-brown pubescent branchlets, growing darker during their first winter and glabrous and dark red-brown tinged with purple in their third season.Winter-budsobtuse, light chestnut-brown, slightly puberulous, about1/16′ long.Bark½′—¾′ thick, deeply divided into narrow rounded ridges covered with thick closely appressed scales varying from cinnamon-red to gray more or less tinged with purple.Woodlight, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, difficult to work, liable to wind-shake and splinter, not durable when exposed to the air, light brown tinged with red, with thin somewhat darker sapwood; largely manufactured into coarse lumber employed for the outside finish of buildings. The astringent inner bark affords the largest part of the material used in the northeastern states and Canada in tanning leather. From the young branches oil of hemlock is distilled.
Distribution. Scattered through upland forests and often covering the northern slopes of rocky ridges and the steep rocky banks of narrow river-gorges from Nova Scotia to eastern Minnesota (Carleton County), and southward through the northern states to Newcastle County, Delaware, cliffs of Tuckahoe Creek, Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, southern Michigan, southern Indiana (bank of Back Creek near Leesville, Laurence County), southwestern Wisconsin, and along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia, and in northern Alabama; most abundant and frequently an important element of the forest in New England, northern New York, and western Pennsylvania; attaining its largest size near streams on the slopes of the high mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.
Largely cultivated with numerous seminal varieties as an ornamental tree in the northern states, and in western and central Europe.
Fig. 47
Leavesretuse or often emarginate at apex, dark green, lustrous and conspicuously grooved on the upper surface, marked on the lower surface by a band of 7 or 8 rows of stomata on each side of the midrib, ⅓′—¾′ long, about1/12′ wide, deciduous from the orange-red bases during their fifth year.Flowers: male tinged with purple; female purple, with broadly ovate bracts, scarious and erose on the margins and about as long as their scales.Fruiton short stout stalks, oblong, 1′—1½′ long, with narrow-oval scales gradually narrowed and rounded at apex, rather abruptly contracted at base into distinct stipes, thin, concave, puberulous on the outer surface, twice as long as their broad pale bracts, spreading nearly at right angles to the axis of the coneat maturity, their bracts rather longer than wide, wedge-shaped, pale, nearly truncate or slightly pointed at the broad apex;seeds⅙′ long, with numerous small oil-vesicles on the lower side, and one quarter as long as the pale lustrous wings broad or narrow at the base and narrowed to the rounded apex.
A tree, usually 40°—50°, or occasionally 70° high, with a trunk rarely exceeding 2° in diameter, short stout often pendulous branches forming a handsome compact pyramidal head, and slender light orange-brown pubescent branchlets, usually becoming glabrous and dull brown more or less tinged with orange during their third year.Winter-budsobtuse, dark chestnut-brown, pubescent, nearly ⅛′ long.Barkof the trunk ¾′—1¼′ thick, red-brown, and deeply divided into broad flat connected ridges covered with thin closely appressed plate-like scales.Woodlight, soft, not strong, brittle, coarse-grained, pale brown tinged with red, with thin nearly white sapwood.
Distribution. Rocky banks of streams usually at elevations between 2500° and 3000° on the Blue Ridge from southwestern Virginia to northern Georgia, generally singly or in small scattered groves of a few individuals.
Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree in the northern states, and in western Europe.
Fig. 48
Leavesrounded at apex, conspicuously grooved, dark green and very lustrous on the upper surface, marked below by broad white bands of 7—9 rows of stomata, abruptly contracted at the base into slender petioles, ¼′—¾′ long and1/16′—1/12′ wide, mostly persistent 4—7 years.Flowers: male yellow; female purple and puberulous, with broad bracts gradually narrowed to an obtuse point and shorter than their broadly ovate slightly scarious scales. Fruit oblong-ovoid, acute, sessile, ¾′—1′ long, with slightly puberulous oval scales, often abruptly narrowed near the middle, and dark purple puberulous bracts rounded and abruptly contracted at apex;seeds⅛′ long, furnished with occasional oil-vesicles, one third to one half as long as their narrow wings.
A tree, frequently 200° high, with a tall trunk 6°—10° in diameter, and short slender usually pendulous branches forming a narrow pyramidal head, and slender pale yellow-brown branchlets ultimately becoming dark reddish brown, coated at first with long pale hairs, and pubescent or puberulous for five or six years.Winter-budsovoid, bright chestnut-brown, about1/16′ long.Barkon young trunks thin, dark orange-brown, andseparated by shallow fissures into narrow flat plates broken into delicate scales, becoming on fully grown trees 1′—1½′ thick and deeply divided into broad flat connected ridges covered with closely appressed brown scales more or less tinged with cinnamon-red.Woodlight, hard and tough, pale brown tinged with yellow, with thin nearly white sapwood; stronger and more durable than the wood of the other American hemlocks; now largely manufactured into lumber used principally in the construction of buildings. The bark is used in large quantities in tanning leather; from the inner bark the Indians of Alaska obtain one of their principal articles of vegetable food.
Distribution. Southeastern Alaska, southward near the coast to southern Mendocino County, California, extending eastward over the mountains of southern British Columbia, northern Washington, Idaho and Montana, to the western slopes of the continental divide, and through Oregon to the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains, sometimes ascending in the interior to elevations of 6000° above the sea; most abundant and of its largest size on the coast of Washington and Oregon; often forming a large part of the forests of the northwest coast.
Frequently planted as an ornamental tree in temperate Europe.
Fig. 49
Leavesstanding out from all sides of the branch, remote on leading shoots and crowded on short lateral branchlets, rounded and occasionally obscurely grooved or on young plants sometimes conspicuously grooved on the upper surface, rounded and slightly ribbed on the lower surface, bluntly pointed, often more or less curved, stomatiferous above and below, with about 8 rows of stomata on each surface, light bluish green or on some individuals pale blue, ½′—1′ long, about1/16′ wide, abruptly narrowed into nearly straight or slightly twisted petioles articulate on bases as long or rather longer than the petioles; irregularly deciduous during their third and fourth years.Flowers: male borne on slender pubescent drooping stems, violet-purple; female erect, with delicate lustrous dark purple or yellow-green bracts gradually narrowed above into slender often slightly reflexed tips and much longer than their scales.Fruitsessile, oblong-cylindric, narrowed toward the blunt apex and somewhat toward the base, erect until more than half grown, pendulous or rarely erect at maturity, ⅝′—3′ long, with thin delicate oblong-obovate scales gradually contracted from above the middle to the wedge-shaped base, rounded at the slightly thickened more or less erose margins, puberulous on the outer surface, usually bright bluish purple or occasionally pale yellow-green, four or five times as long as their short-pointed dark purple or brown bracts;seedslight brown, ⅛′ long, often marked on thesurface next their scales with 1 or 2 large resin-vesicles, with wings nearly ½′ long, broadest above the middle, gradually narrowed below, slightly or not at all oblique at the rounded apex.
A tree, usually 70°—100° but occasionally 150° high, with a slightly tapering trunk 4°—5° in diameter, gracefully pendant slender branches furnished with drooping frond-like lateral branches, their ultimate divisions erect and forming an open pyramid surmounted by the long drooping leading shoot, and thin flexible or sometimes stout rigid branchlets light reddish brown and covered for two or three years with short pale dense pubescence, becoming grayish brown and very scaly.Winter-budsacute, about ⅛′ long, the scales of the outer ranks furnished on the back with conspicuous midribs produced into slender deciduous awl-like tips.Bark1′—1½′ thick, deeply divided into connected rounded ridges broken into thin closely appressed dark cinnamon scales shaded with blue or purple.Woodlight, soft, not strong, close-grained, pale brown or red, with thin nearly white sapwood; occasionally manufactured into lumber.
Distribution. Exposed ridges and slopes at high altitudes along the upper border of the forest from southeastern Alaska, southward over the mountain ranges of British Columbia to the Olympic Mountains of Washington, and eastward to the western slopes of the Selkirk Mountains in the interior of southern British Columbia, and along the Bitter Root Mountains to the headwaters of the Clearwater River, Idaho; along the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon, on the mountain ranges of northern California, and along the high Sierra Nevada to the cañon of the south fork of King’s River, California; in Alaska occasionally descending to the sea-level, and toward the southern limits of its range often ascending to elevations of 10,000°.
Often planted as an ornamental tree in western and central Europe, and rarely in the eastern United States.
Pyramidal trees, with thick deeply furrowed bark, hard strong wood, with spirally marked wood-cells, slender usually horizontal irregularly whorled branches clothed with slender spreading lateral branches forming broad flat-topped masses of foliage, ovoid acute leaf-buds, the lateral buds in the axils of upper leaves, their inner scales accrescent and marking the branchlets with ring-like scars. Leaves petiolate, linear, flat, rounded and obtuse or acuminate at apex, straight or incurved, grooved on the upper side, marked on the lower side by numerous rows of stomata on each side of the prominent midrib, spreading nearly at right angles with the branch. Flowers solitary, the male axillary, scattered along the branches, oblong-cylindric, with numerous globose anthers, their connectives terminating in short spurs, the female terminal or in the axils of upper leaves, composed of spirally arranged ovate rounded scales much shorter than their acutely 2-lobed bracts, with midribs produced into elongated slender tips. Fruit an ovoid-oblong acute pendulous cone maturing in one season, with rounded concave rigid scales persistent on the axis of the cone after the escape of the seeds, and becoming dark red-brown, much shorter than the 2-lobed bracts with midribs ending in rigid woody linear awns, those at the base of the cone without scales and becoming linear-lanceolate by the gradual suppression of their lobes. Seeds nearly triangular, full, rounded and dark-colored on the upper side and pale on the lower side, shorter than their oblong wings infolding the upper side of the seeds in a dark covering; outer seed-coat thick and crustaceous, the inner thin and membranaceous; cotyledons 6—12, much shorter than the inferior radicle.
Pseudotsuga is confined to western North America, southern Japan, southwestern China and Formosa. Four species are recognized.
Pseudotsuga, a barbarous combination of a Greek with a Japanese word, indicates the relation of these trees with the Hemlocks.
Pseudotsuga mucronata Sudw.
Fig. 50
Leavesstraight or rarely slightly incurved, rounded and obtuse at apex, or acute on leading shoots, ¾′—1¼′ long,1/16′—1/12′ wide, dark yellow-green or rarely light or dark bluish green, occasionally persistent until their sixteenth year.Flowers: male orange-red; female with slender elongated bracts deeply tinged with red.Fruitpendant on long stout stems, 4′—6½′ long, with thin slightly concave scales rounded and occasionally somewhat elongated at apex, usually rather longer than broad, when fully grown at midsummer slightly puberulous, dark blue-green below, purplish toward the apex, bright red on the closely appressed margins, and pale green bracts becoming slightly reflexed above the middle, ⅕′—¼′ wide, often extending ½′ beyond the scales;seedslight reddish brown and lustrous above, pale and marked below with large irregular white spots, ¼′ long, nearly ⅛′ wide, almost as long as their dark brown wings broadest just below the middle, oblique above and rounded at the apex.
A tree, often 200° high, with a trunk 3°—4° in diameter, frequently taller, with a trunk 10°—12° in diameter, but in the dry interior of the continent rarely more than 80°—100° high, with a trunk hardly exceeding 2°—3° in diameter, slender crowded branches densely clothed with long pendulous lateral branches, forming while the tree is young an open pyramid, soon deciduous from trees crowded in the forest, often leaving the trunk naked for two thirds of its length and surmounted by a comparatively small narrow head sometimes becoming flap-topped by the lengthening of the upper branches, and slender branchlets pubescent for three or four years, pale orange color and lustrous during their first season, becoming bright reddish brown and ultimately dark gray-brown.Winter-budsovoid, acute, the terminal bud often ¼′ long and nearly twice as large as the lateral buds.Barkon young trees smooth, thin, rather lustrous, dark gray-brown, usually becoming on old trunks 10′—12′ thick, and divided into oblong plates broken into great broad rounded and irregularly connected ridges separating on the surface into small thick closely appresseddark red-brown scales.Woodlight, red or yellow, with nearly white sapwood; very variable in density, quality, and in the thickness of the sapwood; largely manufactured into lumber in British Columbia, western Washington and Oregon, and used for all kinds of construction, fuel, railway-ties, and piles; known commercially as “Oregon pine.” The bark is sometimes used in tanning leather.
Distribution. From about latitude 55° north in the Rocky Mountains and from the head of the Skeena River in the coast range, southward through all the Rocky Mountain system to the mountains of western Texas, southern New Mexico and Arizona, and of northern Mexico, and from the Big Horn and Laramie Ranges in Wyoming and from eastern base of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to the Pacific coast, but absent from the arid mountains in the great basin between the Wahsatch and the Sierra Nevada ranges and from the mountains of southern California; most abundant and of its largest size near the sea-level in the coast region of southern British Columbia and of Washington and Oregon, and on the western foothills of the Cascade Mountains; ascending on the California Sierras to elevations of 5500°, and on the mountains of Colorado to between 6000° and 11,000°, above the sea.
Often planted for timber and ornament in temperate Europe, and for ornament in the eastern and northern states, where only the form from the interior of the continent flourishes. (P. glauca Mayr.)
Fig. 51
Leavesacute or acuminate, terminating in slender rigid callous tips, apparently 2-ranked by the conspicuous twist of their petioles, incurved above the middle, ¾′—1¼′ long, about1/16′ wide, dark bluish gray.Flowers: male pale yellow, inclosed for half their length in conspicuous involucres of the lustrous bud-scales; female with pale green bracts tinged with red.Fruitproduced on the upper branches and occasionally on those down to the middle of the tree, short-stalked, with scales near the middle of the cone 1½′—2′ across, stiff, thick, concave, rather broader than long, rounded above, abruptly wedge-shaped at the base, puberulous on the outer surface, often nearly as long as their comparatively short and narrow bracts with broad midribs produced into short flattened flexible tips;seedsfull and rounded on both sides, rugose, dark chestnut-brown or nearly black and lustrous above, pale reddish brown below, ½′ long, ⅜′ wide, with a thick brittle outer coat, and wings broadest near the middle, about ½′ long, nearly ¼′ wide, and rounded at the apex.
A tree, usually 40°—50° and rarely 90° high, with a trunk 3°—4° in diameter, remote elongated branches pendulous below, furnished with short stout pendant or often erect laterals forming an open broad-based symmetrical pyramidal head, slender branchlets dark reddishbrown and pubescent during their first year, becoming glabrous and dark or light orange-brown and ultimately gray-brown.Winter budsovoid, acute, usually not more than ⅛′ long, often nearly as broad as long.Bark3′—6′ thick, dark reddish brown, deeply divided into broad rounded ridges covered with thick closely appressed scales.Woodheavy, hard, strong, close-grained, not durable; occasionally manufactured into lumber; largely used for fuel.
Distribution.Steep rocky mountain slopes in southern California at elevations of 3000°—5000° above the sea, often forming open groves of considerable extent, from the Santa Inez Mountains in Santa Barbara County to the Cuyamaca Mountains.
Tall pyramidal trees, with bark containing numerous resin-vesicles, smooth, pale, and thin on young trees, often thick and deeply furrowed in old age, pale and usually brittle wood, slender horizontal wide-spreading branches in regular remote 4 or 5-branched whorls, clothed with twice or thrice forked lateral branches forming flat-topped masses of foliage gradually narrowed from the base to the apex of the branch, the ultimate divisions stout, glabrous or pubescent, and small subglobose or ovoid winter branch-buds usually thickly covered with resin, or in one species large and acute, with thin loosely imbricated scales. Leaves linear, sessile, on young plants and on lower sterile branches flattened and mostly grooved on the upper side, or in one species 4-sided, rounded and usually emarginate at apex, appearing 2-ranked by a twist near their base or occasionally spreading from all sides of the branch, only rarely stomatiferous above, on upper fertile branches and leading shoots usually crowded, more or less erect, often incurved or falcate, thick, convex on the upper side, or quadrangular in some species and then obtuse, or acute at apex and frequently stomatiferous on all sides; persistent usually for eight or ten years, in falling leaving small circular scars. Flowers axillary, from buds formed the previous season on branchlets of the year, surrounded at the base by conspicuous involucres of enlarged bud-scales, the male very abundant on the lower side of branches above the middle of the tree, oval or oblong-cylindric with yellow or scarlet anthers surmounted by short knob-like projections, the female usually on the upper side only of the topmost branches, or in some species scattered also over the upper half of the tree, erect, globose, ovoid or oblong, their scales imbricated in many series, obovate, rounded above, cuneate below, much shorter than their acute or dilated mucronate bracts. Fruit an erect ovoid or oblong-cylindric cone, its scales closely imbricated, thin, incurved at the broad apex and generally narrowed below into long stipes, decreasing in size and sterile toward the ends of the cone, falling at maturity with their bracts and seeds from the stout tapering axis of the cone long-persistent on the branch. Seeds furnished with large conspicuous resin-vesicles, ovoid or oblong, acute at base, covered on the upper side and infolded below on the lower side by the base of their thin wing abruptly enlarged at the oblique apex; seed-coat thin, of 2 layers, the outer thick, coriaceous, the inner membranaceous; cotyledons 4—10, much shorter than the inferior radicle.
Abies is widely distributed in the New World from Labrador and the valley of the Athabasca River to the mountains of North Carolina, and from Alaska through the Pacific and Rocky Mountain regions to the highlands of Guatemala, and in the Old World from Siberia and the mountains of central Europe to southern Japan, central China, Formosa, the Himalayas, Asia Minor, and the highlands of northern Africa. Thirty-three species are now recognized. Several exotic species are cultivated in the northern and eastern states; of these the best known and most successful as ornamental trees areAbies Nordmanniana, Spach, of the Caucasus,Abies cilicicaCarr., of Asia Minor,Abies cephalonicaLoud., a native of Cephalonia,Abies VeitchiiLindl., andAbies homolepisS. & Z., of Japan, andAbies pinsapo, Boiss., of the Spanish Sierra Nevada.
Abiesis the classical name of the Fir-tree.
Fig. 52
Leaves obtusely short-pointed or occasionally slightly emarginate at apex, dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, marked on the lower surface by wide bands of 8—12rows of stomata, ½′ to nearly 1′ long, about1/16′ wide.Flowers: male yellow tinged with red; female with scales rounded above, much broader than long and shorter than their oblong pale yellow-green bracts rounded at the broad apex terminating in a slender elongated tip.Fruitoblong-ovoid or nearly oval, rounded at the somewhat narrowed apex, dark purple, puberulous, about 2½′ long, with scales twice as wide as long, at maturity nearly half covered by their pale yellow-green reflexed bracts;seeds⅛′ long, with dark lustrous wings much expanded and very oblique at apex.
A tree, usually 30°—40° and rarely 70° high, with a trunk occasionally 2½° in diameter, and rather rigid branches forming an open symmetrical pyramid and often disappearing early from the lower part of the trunk, and stout branchlets pubescent for three or four years, pale yellow-brown during their first season, becoming dark reddish brown often tinged with purple, and obtuse orange-brown winter-buds.Bark¼′—½′ thick, covered with thin closely appressed bright cinnamon-red scales, generally becoming gray on old trees.Woodlight, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, pale brown, with nearly white sapwood; occasionally manufactured into lumber.
Distribution: Appalachian Mountains; Cheat Mountain, near Cheat Bridge, Randolph County, West Virginia, and from southwestern Virginia to western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, often forming forests of considerable extent at elevations between 4000° and 6000° above the sea-level.
Occasionally planted in the parks and gardens of the northern states and of Europe, but short-lived in cultivation and of little value as an ornamental tree.
Fig. 53
Leavesdark green and lustrous on the upper surface, silvery white on the lower surface, with bands of 4—8 rows of stomata, ½′ long on cone-bearing branches to 1¼′ long on the sterile branches of young trees, straight, acute or acuminate, with short or elongated rigid callous tips, spreading at nearly right angles to the branch on young trees and sterile branches, on the upper branches of older trees often broadest above the middle, rounded or obtusely short-pointed at apex, occasionally emarginate on branches at the top of the tree.Flowers: male yellow, more or less deeply tinged with reddish purple; female with nearly orbicular purple scales much shorter than their oblong-obovate serrulate pale yellow-green bracts emarginate with a broad apex abruptly contracted into a long slender recurved tip.Fruitoblong-cylindric, gradually narrowed to the rounded apex, puberulous, dark rich purple, 2′—4′ long, with scales usually longer than broad, generally almost twice as long; rarely not as long as their bracts, (var.phanerolepisFern.); seeds about ¼′ long and rather shorter than their light brown wings.
A tree, 50°—60° high, with a trunk usually 12′—18′; or rarely 30′ in diameter, spreading branches forming a handsome symmetrical slender-pyramid, the lower branches soon dying from trees crowded in the forest, and slender branchlets pale yellow-green and coated with fine pubescence at first, becoming light gray tinged with red, and often when four or five years old with purple.Winter-budsnearly globose, ⅛′—¼′ in diameter, with lustrous dark orange-green scales.Barkon old trees often ½′ thick, rich brown, much broken on the surface into small plates covered with scales.Woodlight, soft, not strong, coarse-grained, perishable, pale brown streaked with yellow, with thick lighter colored sapwood; occasionally made into lumber principally used for packing-cases. From the bark of this tree oil of fir used in the arts and in medicine is obtained.
Distribution. From the interior of the Labrador peninsula westward to the shores of Lesser Slave Lake, southward through Newfoundland, the maritime provinces of Canada, Quebec and Ontario, northern New England, northern New York, northern Michigan to the shores of Saginaw Bay, and northern Minnesota and northeastern Iowa, and along the Appalachian Mountains from western Massachusetts and the Catskills of New York to the high mountains of southwestern Virginia; common and often forming a considerable part of the forest on low swampy ground; on well-drained hillsides sometimes singly in forests of spruce or forming small almost impenetrable thickets; in northern Wisconsin and vicinity occurs a form with longer and more crowded leaves and larger cones (var.macrocarpaKent); near the timber-line on the mountains of New England and New York reduced to a low almost prostrate shrub.
Sometimes planted in the northern states in the neighborhood of farmhouses, but usually short-lived and of little value as an ornamental tree in cultivation; formerly but now rarely cultivated in European plantations; a dwarf form (var.hudsonicaEnglm.) growing only a few inches high and spreading into broad nests is often cultivated.
Fig. 54
Leaves marked on the upper surface but generally only above the middle with 4 or 5 rows of stomata on each side of the conspicuous midrib and on the lower surface by 2 broad bands each of 7 or 8 rows, crowded, nearly erect by the twist at their base, on lower branches 1′—1¾′ long, about1/12′ wide, and rounded and occasionally emarginate at apex, on upper branches somewhat thickened, usually acute, generally not more than ½′ long, on leading shoots flattened, closely appressed, with long slender rigid points.Flowers: male dark indigo-blue, turning violet when nearly ready to open; female with dark violet-purple obovate scales much shorter than their strongly reflexed bracts contracted into slender tips.Fruitoblong-cylindric, rounded, truncate or depressed at the narrowed apex, dark purple, puberulous, 2½′—4′ long, with scales gradually narrowed from the broad rounded or nearly truncate apex to the base, usually longer than broad, about three times as long as their oblong-obovate red-brown bracts laciniately cut on the margins, rounded, emarginate and abruptly contracted at the apex into long slender tips;seeds¼′ long, with dark lustrous wings covering nearly the entire surface of the scales.
A tree, usually 80°—100°, occasionally 175°, or southward rarely more than 50° high, with a trunk 2°—5° in diameter, short crowded tough branches, usually slightly pendulous near the base of the tree, generally clothing the trunks of the oldest trees nearly to their base and forming dense spire-like slender heads, and comparatively stout branchlets coated for three or four years with fine rufous pubescence, or rarely glabrous before the end of their first season, pale orange-brown, ultimately gray or silvery white.Winter-budssubglobose, ⅛′—¼′ thick, covered with light orange-brown scales.Barkbecoming on old trees ¾′—1½′ thick, divided by shallow fissures and roughened by thick closely appressed cinnamon-red scales; on the San Francisco Mountains, Arizona, thicker and spongy (var.arizonicaLem.).Woodlight, soft, not strong, pale brown or nearly white, with light-colored sapwood; little used except for fuel.
Distribution. High mountain slopes and summits from about latitude 61° in Alaska, southward along the coast ranges to the Olympic Mountains of Washington, over all thehigh mountain ranges of British Columbia and Alberta, and southward along the Cascade Mountains of Washington and Oregon to the neighborhood of Crater Lake, over the mountain ranges of eastern Washington and Oregon, and of Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah to the San Francisco peaks of northern Arizona, and on the Sandia and Mogollon Mountains of New Mexico.
Occasionally planted as an ornamental tree in the northern United States and in northern Europe, but of little value in cultivation.
Fig. 55
Leavesthin and flexible, deeply grooved very dark green and lustrous on upper surface, silvery white on lower surface, with two broad bands of 7—10 rows of stomata, on sterile branches remote, rounded and conspicuously emarginate at apex, 1½′—2¼′ long, usually about ⅛′ wide, spreading in two ranks nearly at right angles to the branch, on cone-bearing branches more crowded, usually 1′—1½′ long, less spreading or nearly erect, blunt-pointed or often notched at apex, on vigorous young trees ½′—¾′ long, acute or acuminate,usually persistent 4—10 years.Flowers:male pale yellow sometimes tinged with purple; female light yellow-green, with semiorbicular scales and short-oblong bracts emarginate and denticulate at the broad obcordate apex furnished with a short strongly reflexed tip. Fruit cylindric, slightly narrowed to the rounded and sometimes retuse apex, puberulous, bright green, 2′—4′ long, with scales usually about two thirds as long as wide, gradually or abruptly narrowed from their broad apex and three or four times as long as their short pale green bracts;seeds⅜′ in length, light brown, with pale lustrous wings ½′—⅝′ long and nearly as broad as their abruptly widened rounded apex.
A tree, in the neighborhood of the coast 250°—300° high, with a slightly tapering trunk often 4° in diameter, long somewhat pendulous branches sweeping out in graceful curves, and comparatively slender pale yellow-green puberulous branchlets becoming light reddish brown or orange-brown and glabrous in their second season; on the mountains of the interior rarely more than 100° tall, with a trunk usually about 2° in diameter, often smaller and much stunted at high elevations.Winter-budssubglobose, ⅛′—¼′ thick.Barkbecoming sometimes 2′ thick at the base of old trees and gray-brown or reddish brown and divided by shallow fissures into low flat ridges broken into oblong plates roughened by thick closely appressed scales.Woodlight, soft, coarse-grained, not strong nor durable, light brown, with thin lighter colored sapwood; occasionally manufactured into lumber in western Washington and Oregon and used for the interior finish of buildings, packing-cases, and wooden-ware.
Distribution.Northern part of Vancouver Island southward in the neighborhood of the coast to northern Sonoma County, California, and along the mountains of northern Washington and Idaho to the western slopes of the continental divide in northern Montana, and to the mountains of eastern Oregon; near the coast scattered on moist ground through forests of other conifers; common in Washington and northern Oregon from the sea up to elevations of 4000°; in the interior on moist slopes in the neighborhood of streams from 2500° up to 7000° above the sea; in California rarely ranging more than ten miles inland or ascending to altitudes of more than 1500° above the sea.
Occasionally planted in the parks and gardens of temperate Europe, where it grows rapidly and promises to attain a large size; rarely planted in the United States.
Fig. 56
Leavescrowded, spreading in 2 ranks and more or less erect from the strong twist at their base, pale blue or glaucous, becoming dull green at the end of two or three years, with 2 broad bands of stomata on the lower, and more or less stomatiferous on the upper surface, on lower branches flat, straight, rounded, acute or acuminate at apex, 2′—3′ long, about1/16′ wide, on fertile branches and on old trees frequently thick, keeled above, usually falcate, acute or rarely notched at apex, ¾′—1½′ long, often ⅛′ wide.Flowers:male dark red or rose color; female with broad rounded scales, and oblong strongly reflexed obcordate bracts laciniate above the middle and abruptly contracted at apex into short points.Fruitoblong, slightly narrowed from near the middle to the ends, rounded or obtuse at apex, 3′—5′ long, puberulous, grayish green, dark purple or bright canary-yellow, with scales much broader than long, gradually and regularly narrowed from the rounded apex, rather more than twice as long as their emarginate or nearly truncate bracts broad at the apex and terminating in short slender tips;seeds⅓′—½′ long, acute at base, dark dull brown, with lustrous rose-colored wings widest near the middle and nearly truncate at apex.
A tree, on the California sierras 200°—250° high, with a trunk often 6° in diameter or in the interior of the continent rarely more than 125° tall, with a trunk seldom exceeding 3° in diameter, a narrow spire-like crown of short stout branches clothed with long lateral branches pointing forward and forming great frond-like masses of foliage, and glabrous lustrous comparatively stout branchlets dark orange color during their first season, becoming light grayish green or pale reddish brown, and ultimately gray or grayish brown.Winter-budssubglobose, ⅛′—¼′ thick.Barkbecoming on old trunks sometimes 5′—6′ thick near the ground and deeply divided into broad rounded ridges broken on the surface into irregularlyshaped plate-like scales.Woodvery light, soft, coarse-grained and not strong nor durable, pale brown or sometimes nearly whiter occasionally manufactured into lumber, in northern California used for packing-cases and butter-tubs.
Distribution.Rocky Mountains of southern Colorado, westward to the mountain ranges of California, extending northward into northern Oregon, and southward over the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona into northern Mexico and Lower California (Mt. San Pedro Mártir Mountains); the only Fir-tree in the arid regions of the Great Basin, of southern New Mexico and Arizona, and of the mountain forests of southern California.
Often planted as an ornamental tree in Europe (the California form usually asA. LowianaMurr.) and in the eastern states where it grows more vigorously than other Fir-trees.
Fig. 57
Leavesdeeply grooved, very dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, silvery white on the lower, with broad bands of 6 or 8 rows of stomata between the prominent midribs and incurved margins, on sterile branches obtuse and rounded, or notched or occasionally acute at apex, ¾′—1¼′ long,1/16′—1/12′ wide, often broadest above the middle, erect by a twist at their base, very crowded, those on the upper side of the branch much shorter than those on the lower and usually parallel with and closely appressed against it, on fertile branches acute or acuminate with callous tips, occasionally stomatiferous on the upper surface near the apex, ½′—¾′ long; on vigorous leading shoots acute, with long rigid points, closely appressed or recurved near the middle, about ¾′ long and nearly ⅛′ wide.Flowers:male red; female with broad rounded scales and rhombic dark purple lustrous bracts erose above the middle and gradually contracted into broad points.Fruitoblong, slightly narrowed to the rounded and often retuse apex, deep rich purple, puberulous, 3½′—6′ long, with scales 1′—1⅛′ wide, nearly as long as broad, gradually narrowed from the rounded apex and rather more than twice as long as their reddish rhombic or oblong-obovate bracts terminating in long slender tips;seedslight yellow-brown, ½′ long, with oblique pale brown lustrous wings about ¾′ long.
A tree, often 250° tall, or at high altitudes and in the north usually not more than 70°—80° tall, with a trunk 4°—6° in diameter, in thick forests often naked for 150°, but in open situations densely clothed to the ground with comparatively short branches sweeping down in graceful curves, and stout branchlets clothed for four or five years with soft fine pubescence, light orange-brown in their first season, becoming dark purple and ultimately reddish brown.Winter-budsnearly globose, ⅛′—¼′ thick, with closely imbricated lustrous purple scales.Barkon trees up to 150 years old thin, smooth, pale or silvery white,becoming near the ground on old trees 1½′—2½′ thick, and irregularly divided into comparatively small plates covered with small closely appressed reddish brown or reddish gray scales.Woodlight, hard, not strong, close-grained, pale brown, with nearly white sapwood; in Washington occasionally manufactured into lumber used in the interior finish of buildings.
Distribution.High mountain slopes and benches from southeastern Alaska (Boca de Quadra Inlet and Sandfly Bay), to Vancouver Island and southward along the coast ranges to Saddle Mountain near Astoria, Oregon, and on the Cascade Mountains to the slopes of Old Bailey Mountain, Oregon, ranging from the sea level at the north to elevations of from 3000°—6000° southward; attaining its largest size on the Olympic Mountains of Washington, where it is the most common Fir-tree.
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in the eastern states and in western Europe, but without developing the beauty which distinguishes this species in its native forests.