The Colorado Douglas displays in cultivation well-marked peculiarities, which are mentioned in detail on pages 825, 826.
2. Lemmon! has described several other wild varieties, as var. suderosa from Arizona and New Mexico, var. elongata from the base of Mount Hood in Oregon, and var. palustris from swamps in the Lower Columbia Valley.
3. A considerable number of cultivated varieties have been distinguished by Carriére and Beissner, most of which are not worth mentioning, as their distinctive characters are trifling and inconstant. Fastigiate and pendulous forms are known, but are rarely met with.
Var. Stairii, with yellowish foliage, originated * at Castle Kennedy.
Var. Fretsii, Beissner,’ is very peculiar in the foliage, as the leaves are short and broad, only ½ inch in length, very obtuse at the apex, and resembling those of Tsuga Sieboldii. This originated in the seed-bed, and was sent out by Messrs. Frets & Sons of Boskoop, Holland. (A.H.)
Other varieties occur in cultivation which, though very distinct in habit, are not, in my opinion, worth naming. Among the best of the pendulous forms is one at Bury Hill, Dorking, the seat of R. Barclay, Esq., which in 1908 was 88 feet high.
I noticed in October 1907, near Boldrewood in the New Forest, on the north side of the drive, two trees, one of which was a typical Oregon Douglas fir with drooping branches, and leaves very silvery on the under side. Another close by had much narrower, stiffer, and darker foliage, and denser branches, the leaves much less silvery, and the cones closely packed near the summit of the tree in a manner unusual in this species. The former tree measured 70 feet by 6 feet 10 inches, the latter 66 feet by 5 feet 2 inches. Others of the latter type, standing near the gate leading into Mark Ash, bore no cones at all.
Near Eggesford House, in the higher walk, I saw a Douglas fir tree, so distinct in habit that it might be easily mistaken for another species. It had thin greyish foliage, pendulous branchlets, and very few cones, and measured 80 feet by 5 feet 7 inches, whilst ordinary Douglas firs planted close by were much thicker in pro- portion. I believe that by selecting such trees as seed-bearers we may ultimately succeed in obtaining distinct races which, for economic planting, will be much more valuable than trees of unknown origin. (H.J.E.)
Distribution
The Douglas fir has an extremely wide distribution in western North America, extending from north to south over 33° of latitude, between the parallels of 55° and 22°, and ranging from the Pacific coast to east of the Rocky Mountains. It occupies practically all of this vast territory except the higher elevations of the mountains and the desert and prairie regions of lower altitudes, where the rainfall is slight. It is the dominant tree of the great western forest, always growing in mixture with other
1 West American Conebearers, 57 (1895).
2 This variety is fully described in Gard. Chron. 1871, p. 1481. I have seen the original, which is now a small unhealthy looking tree; as are all those we have seen elsewhere, The best, perhaps, is a large dense bush rather than a tree, growing in Wood’s nursery, near Buxsted, Sussex.—-(H.J.E.)
3 Mitt. Deut. Dend. Gesell. 1905, p. 74, f. 8.
