De I. VNER VEW D Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope

50
FOREST TREES OF TME PACIFIC SLOPE.
growing away from the coast andl by the eastern representative of this species.
The thin bark results in extensive destruction of this tree by fire, which soon
,scorches the thickest of this bark so badly as to kill the trees. The Pacific
tree is 20 to 40 feet high and from 6 to 20 inclhes in diameter; the trunk is
short and thickly set with hugely developed br nc( hes, except in very dense
stands. In its eastern range the tree attains al height of from 50 to 100 feet,
and in close stands develops a smooth, clean trunk for from 30 to G0 feet; from
12 to 24 inches is the usual diammieter. Tailer and larger trees occur. The
foliage of the coast tree is dark yellow-green, but awnvay from the sea it becomes
distinctly a bright yellow-green, which is clharacteristie throughout the interior
Pacific andt eastern range. The leaves (fig. 15), regularly 2 in a bundle. are
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I ,
Flu. 15>.-Piallj, co81toih: ,I, seed with and without wing.
from about 1 inch to nearly 3 inches long; usually about 2 inches long. A
season's growth of leaves remains On1 the trees from six to eight years; long
persistence appears to belong more to young trees, on which leaves are retained
sometimes for nine years. The leaves of the Pacific form are only about onethird
as thick as those of the inland and eastern representative, which are nearly
an eighth of an inch wide. Cones (figs. 15, 16) ripen late in August and September.
Very many trees open their cones in late fall anul shed nearly all of their
seeds, while the cones of other trees ill the samne locality may remain closed for
a number of years. Open or closed they adhere to the branches for a great many
years, some of the closed ones finally opening and libernting their seed. The
rel,_