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

FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE.
wonderful reprodeutive power of this species otil areas over wlhich its stand has
been killed by fire is dependent upon the ability of the closed cones to endure
a fire which kills the tree without injuring its seed. After fire, the cones
open and shlle their seeds on thill Ilare( ground and a new growth springs up.
Another remarkable adaptation insuring, this tree against extinction by fire is
its habit of producing fertile cones at the early age of from 7 to 10 years.
When the cones are fully ripe the seale tills are shiny and a clay-brown color,
their inner portion being a1 bright purple-brown. The seeds (fig. 15, a) are deep
reddish brown, with black-brownv slots. Seed leaves, commonly 5, but sometinmes
4. Wood varies in griaint fine in dense stands, moderately coarse in the
open; commercially implortalit. Wood of the Pacific tree is a pale reddish
Fie. 10-Finues (ontorta.
brown, while the eastern wood is yellow or yellowish-brown. Both are hard.
The eastern wvood is lighter, less resinous, and straighter-grained.
LoNGEVITr.-Attains an age of from 100 to 175 years; but doubtless it is
capable of reaching from 200 to possibly 300 years, if exempt from fire, to
-,which, throughout its range, it quickly succunibs ois account of its thin bark.
Many stands have in the past attained an age of only (00 years befoce being
killed by forest fires.
RANGE.
From Alaskan coast and interior Yukon territory southward to northern 1,ower California
and through the Rocky Mountains to the Black hills (South Dakota) and through
western Colorado, The so-called typical Finns contorta (exclusive of Pinus contorta var.
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