5. PSEUDOTSUGA Carr.
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.
CONSPECTUS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES.
Leaves usually rounded and obtuse at apex, dark yellow-green or rarely blue-green; cones 2′—4½′ long, their bracts much exserted.1. [P. taxifolia] (B, E, F, G, H). Leaves acuminate at apex, bluish gray; cones 4′—6½′ long, their bracts slightly exserted.2. [P. macrocarpa] (G).
1. [Pseudotsuga taxifolia] Britt. Douglas Spruce. Red Fir.
Pseudotsuga mucronata Sudw.
Leaves straight 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. Fruit pendant 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; seeds light 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-buds ovoid, acute, the terminal bud often ¼′ long and nearly twice as large as the lateral buds. Bark on 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 appressed dark red-brown scales. Wood light, 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.)
2. [Pseudotsuga macrocarpa] Mayr. Hemlock.
Leaves acute 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, about 1/16′ 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. Fruit produced 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; seeds full 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 reddish brown and pubescent during their first year, becoming glabrous and dark or light orange-brown and ultimately gray-brown. Winter buds ovoid, acute, usually not more than ⅛′ long, often nearly as broad as long. Bark 3′—6′ thick, dark reddish brown, deeply divided into broad rounded ridges covered with thick closely appressed scales. Wood heavy, 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.