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

154 FOREST TREES OF THE PACIFIC SLOPE.
Where the ridges are formed growth appears to be made at the expense of the
intervening wood, and the fluted trunk is the result. This character is less pronounced
on smaller trees. Height, from 150 to 175 feet, or very exceptionally
190 or 200 feet, with a diameter of from 31 to 8 feet, or, in very old trees, rarely
10 or even 16 feet. The enormous girth of such trees is at the base: their
diameter decreases rapidly, so that at 20 feet from the ground they may be no
more than 9 or 10 feet in diameter. From 50 to 100 feet of clear trunk is
common. Young trees are straight, with an open, narrow, conical crown reaching
almost to the ground and tapering to a sharp top; the slender whip-like
leader often nods in a graceful curve. Except when densely crowded, trees
retain all their branches until they are IS or 20 inches in diameter and from 50
to 80 feet high; in the open they become much older without losing their lower
blranches. On young trees the slender limbs all curve upward, but later they
become very long, the lower ones drooping and those higher swinging down in
a long, graceful curve, with an upward sweep at the ends. Tihe flat, lace-like,
yellow-green side sprays hang from the branches like lines of fringe. Old trees
in dense stands have only a short, blunt, or round-topped, conical head. A
notable feature in this tree is the frequent occurrence of two leaders which
combine in forming a dense crowvn. The bark, even on old trunks, is thin, from
five-eighths to seven-eighths of an inch thick, and owing to this the tree is in
great danger from fire, from which it rarely escapes without fatal injury. In
color the bark is a clear, reddish, cinnamon-brown, often weathered outwardly
to a grayish brown. It is distinctly but shallowly seamed, with narrow
ridges which in old trunks are rounded and on younger trees flat. The ridges
run irregularly and continuously, wvith rare breaks, but are connected at short
intervals by thinner diagonal ridges and fibers. The bark has a more or less
stringy, fibrous appearance, and may be separated into long, thin strips on
younger trees, and into shorter scales on old trunks. The inner bark is very
tough and strong. Indians peel strips of it 20 or 30 feet long from young trees
for basket making.
Densely crowded large trees are clear of branches for from 40 to 80 feet,
but they often have scattered branches below the crown. The boles are fairly
straight, but large trees are frequently bowed or slightly bent, and are rarely
full and round.
The small scale-like leaves (figs. 59, 00), sufficiently characterized under the
genus, remain on the tree about 3 years. As the main stems of a branch grow,
its short, flat, side branchlets die and fall during their second year, in this habit
resembling the similar sprays of Libocedrus. The leathery brown cones (fig.
60) mature by the end of August, and have about 6 seed-bearing scales, each
of which bears from 2 to 3 seeds. After shedding their light double-winged
seeds (fig. 60, b), the cones remain on the trees until the following spring or
summer. Seed-leaves, 2; opposite, lance-shaped, and exceedingly small-about
one-fourth of an inch long. Those which afterwards grow, 2 to 3 at short intervals,
on the slender seedling are similar, but longer, widely spread, and bent
downward. Short, scaly leaves similar in arrangement to those on adult stems,
but longer and sharp-pointed, appear on the seedling at the end of its first or
second year, and a year or two later the leaves become like those of adult trees.
Wood very light, strongly aromatic; dull, slightly reddish brown, but losing
the reddish tinge with exposure. Its grain ranges from medium coarse to fine.
It is very brittle and soft. Great durability under all sorts of exposure is its
most important commercial quality. Large logs have lain half-buried in wet
ground over fifty years with but little sign of decay in the heartwood. On
account of its durability and the large clear cuts obtainable it is extensively
used for shingles.