_Pine Family_
Resinous trees and shrubs mostly with evergreen, narrow, entire or
scale-like leaves; the pollen sacks and ovules borne in separate
spikes; fruit a cone with numerous, several or few, woody, papery or
fleshy scales, sometimes berry-like; seed wingless or winged.
Scales of the fruit numerous, alternate; leaf-buds scaly.
Leaves in clusters.
Clusters ensheathed at the base, containing 2, 3, or 5 leaves.
=Pinus.=
Clusters not ensheathed at the base containing many leaves. =Larix.=
Leaves solitary.
Cones erect; scales deciduous. =Abies.=
Cones pendent; scales persistent.
Branchlets smooth; bracts 3-toothed. =Pseudotsuga.=
Branchlets roughened by the persistent leaf bases.
Leaves petioled, not pungent. =Tsuga.=
Leaves sessile, pungent. =Picea.=
Scales of the fruit few, opposite; leaf-buds naked.
Fruit fleshy and berry-like. =Juniperus.=
Fruit a dry cone. =Thuja.=
[Sidenote: =Pinus albicaulis= Engelm. _White-bark Pine._]
A tree 20 or 30 feet high generally with a short trunk 2—4 feet in
diameter, stout, very flexible branches, often standing nearly erect
and forming an open irregular broad head; often a low shrub and nearly
prostrate at high altitudes; bark thin with creamy-white plate-like
scales; leaves stout, rigid, slightly incurved, clustered at the ends
of the branches 1½—2½ inches long; cones oval or subglobose horizontal,
sessile, dark purple, 1½—3 inches long with thickened acute scales.
[Illustration: Pinus albicaulis Engelm. (¼ Nat.) White Pine.]
[Illustration: Pinus Murrayana Oreg. Com. (¼ Nat.) Jack Pine.]
On alpine slopes and exposed ridges from 5000 feet elevation upward,
occurring occasionally in the Rockies, but frequent throughout the
Selkirks at or near the timber line.
[Sidenote: =Pinus Murrayana= Oreg. Com. _Black Pine, Jack Pine._]
A tree 40—80 feet high with a trunk 1—3 feet in diameter, slender,
strict; branches frequently persistent nearly to the base of the stem,
somewhat pendulous below, ascending near the top of the tree, forming a
pyramidal spire-topped head; bark thin, close, light orange-brown with
appressed scales; leaves 2 in a bundle, yellowish-green, 1—3 inches
long, stout; cones yellowish-brown and shining oval to sub-cylindric
oblique at the base, often clustered ¾—2 inches long, with slightly
concave scales with slender deciduous prickles.
The most abundant tree at the lower altitudes throughout the Rockies,
frequently covering vast tracts, and rising on the mountain sides to
6000 feet or occasionally higher.
[Sidenote: =Larix Lyallii= Parl. _Lyall’s Larch._]
A tree usually 40—50 feet high with a diameter of 18—20 inches and
remote, elongated, tough, persistent, nearly black branches, with
prominent winter buds with conspicuous long white matted hairs fringing
the margins of their scales and often nearly concealing the buds;
bark on the old trunks ½ to ¾ of an inch thick, pale gray, divided
into shallow irregular plates; leaves many in a cluster, 4-angled,
slender, blue-green 1—1½ inches long; young cones showy with dark red
or yellow-green scales and dark purple bracts; when mature, ovate 1½—2
inches long with reddish-purple scales and long tipped dark purple
bracts.
[Illustration: Larix Lyallii Parl. (⅓ Nat.) Lyall’s Larch.]
[Illustration: Thuja plicata Don. (⅓ Nat.) Giant Cedar.]
An alpine tree occurring with more or less frequency throughout the
Rockies from Banff to Field, from 6000 to 8000 feet elevation, at or
near the tree limit, often much stunted and almost shrub-like; very
abundant on the mountains in the region about Lake Louise.
[Sidenote: =Abies lasiocarpa= (Hook) Nutt. _Sub-alpine Fir, Balsam
Fir._]
A tree usually 40—100 feet high with a trunk 1—5 feet in diameter,
short crowded tough branches, usually slightly pendulous near the
base and forming dense spire-like slender heads; bark rough on the
older trees, with thick, appressed, cinnamon-red scales; leaves pale
blue-green flat, 1—1¾ inches long on the lower branches, rounded or
notched at the apex; on the upper branches thickened, not more than ½
an inch long, flattened and closely appressed with long rigid points;
cones, oblong-cylindric, rounded, truncate or depressed at the narrowed
apex, dark purple and soft-hairy, 1½—4 inches long with scales
gradually narrowed from the broad rounded apex to the base, about 3
times as long as the bracts.
This tree the Balsam of the region is found throughout on the higher
mountain slopes and summits, frequently forming the timber line in
which case it is shrub-like and stunted.
[Sidenote: =Pseudotsuga mucronata= (Raf.) Sudw. _Douglas Spruce, Red
Fir._]
A magnificent tree 80—100 feet high, with a trunk 2—3 feet in diameter,
or frequently larger, with slender crowded branches and long pendulous
lateral ones forming, while the tree is young, an open pyramid, soon
deciduous from the trees crowded in the forest and leaving the bare
trunk naked for ⅔ of its height and surmounted by a comparatively
small, narrow head; bark on the young trees, smooth, dark gray-brown
and lustrous, on the old trunks several inches thick, divided into
oblong plates broken into irregularly connected ridges; leaves crowded,
yellowish-green, straight or slightly curved, narrow, ¾—1¼ inches long,
obtuse or acute at the apex; cones pendent on long stout stems, 2—4¼
inches long, with thin slightly concave scales; bracts often extending
half an inch beyond the scales.
[Illustration: Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt. (⅓ Nat.) Balsam Fir.]
[Illustration: Pseudotsuga mucronata (Raf.) Sudw. (¼ Nat.) Douglas
Fir.]
Throughout the Rockies in the lower wooded valleys, the handsomest tree
of this section especially when young, now rather rare in the mature
state along the line of the railway, but may be so seen to perfection
in the Yoho and some of the other outlying valleys.
[Sidenote: =Tsuga heterophylla= (Raf.) Sarg. _Western Hemlock._]
A tree frequently 200 feet high, with a trunk 6—10 feet in diameter,
with short slender usually pendulous branches forming a narrow
pyramidal head; bark orange-brown, thin when young, an inch or more
thick on mature trees and divided into broad flat ridges; leaves flat,
dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, marked below by broad
white bands; cones sessile, oblong or oval, ¾—1 inch long with few
yellowish-brown oblong scales abruptly contracted at the middle and
purplish toward the base.
Abundant throughout the Selkirks.
[Sidenote: =Tsuga Mertensiana= (Bong.) Carr. _Mountain Hemlock._]
Tree usually 70—100 feet high with a tapering trunk 2—5 feet in
diameter and gracefully pendent slender branches and drooping lateral
ones; bark grayish and scaly, on mature trees 1—1½ inches thick divided
into rounded ridges with closely appressed cinnamon scales; leaves more
or less in clusters, standing out all over the sides of the branches,
rounded, light bluish-green or in some pale blue ½—1 inch long;
cones sessile, cylindric, oblong, narrowed toward the blunt apex and
somewhat toward the base, pendulous, 1—3 inches long, with thin scales
usually as broad as long, with slightly thickened or erose margins,
purplish-brown, 4 times as long as the sharp, purple bract.
On the slopes and exposed ridges through the Selkirks, a most
attractive tree.
[Illustration: Tsuga Mertensiana (Bong.) Carr. (⅔ Nat.) Mountain
Hemlock.]
[Illustration: Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg. (⅙ Nat.) Hemlock.]
[Sidenote: =Picea Albertiana= S. Brown. _Alberta Spruce._]
A tree 30—60 feet high, slender, strict; twigs smooth and shining or
occasionally glandular, hairy, but never glaucous, yellowish-brown when
young becoming darker with age, leaf bases long and standing out at
right angles from the stem; leaves pale blue or blue-green, ½—1 inch
long, nearly straight or curved, acute or with a rigid tip, 4-sided;
cones ovate or oblong, bright crimson when young, at maturity 1—1½
inches long and nearly as broad when expanded, scales stiff and rigid,
broadly rounded at the apex, entire, broader than long, cinnamon brown
with a chestnut edging; bract very small with a sharply angular tip.
The common spruce in the lower valleys and river bottoms throughout the
Rockies.
[Sidenote: =Picea Engelmanni= (Parry) Engelm. _Engelmann’s Spruce._]
A tree often 150 feet high but usually much lower, with a trunk
reaching 4—5 feet in diameter; spreading branches, produced in regular
whorls and forming a narrow compact pyramidal head, and gracefully
hanging short lateral branches; bark when mature reddish-brown and
broken into thin scales; leaves soft and flexible, slender or slightly
incurved, stouter on the fertile branches, ½—1⅛ inches long, glaucous
when young, becoming dark blue-green; cones oblong-cylindric, 1—2
inches long, lustrous, light chestnut brown with thin flexible
wedge-shaped scales, with erosedentate margins.
On the higher mountain slopes in the Rockies, but much lower in the
valleys of the Selkirks, where it grows to a great size.
[Sidenote: =Juniperus Siberica= Burgs. _Alpine Juniper._]
A depressed rigid shrub, with many slender, decumbent stems, curving
upward and forming a circular mass frequently 10 feet in diameter and
18 inches high; bark reddish-brown; leaves numerous ⅓—½ an inch long,
awl-shaped, rigid, spreading nearly at right angles to the branches,
linear-lanceolate, acute, and tipped with sharp, slender points;
channelled and whitened above, lustrous green beneath; berry-like
cones, blue and glaucous, subglobose or oblong about ¼ of an inch in
diameter.
On dry hills and stony slopes throughout the region.
[Illustration: Picea albertiana S. Brown. (½ Nat.) Alberta Spruce.]
[Illustration: Picea albertiana S. Brown. (½ Nat.) Alberta Spruce.]
[Sidenote: =Juniperus prostrata= Pers. _Shrubby Red Cedar._]
A depressed, creeping shrub seldom more than a foot high, with
spreading branches; bark grayish-brown; leaves scale-like, appressed,
4-ranked, acute, with a short spiny point; berry-like cones, light blue
and glaucous, a third of an inch in diameter.
On dry stony ground and slopes throughout the Rockies.
[Sidenote: =Thuja plicata= Don. _Giant Cedar._]
A tree frequently 200 feet high with a broad, gradually tapering
buttressed base sometimes 15 feet in diameter; branches short,
horizontal, usually pendulous at the ends, bright yellow-green
during the first year, becoming reddish-brown and lustrous; bark
thin, cinnamon-red, divided into broad rounded ridges by shallow
fissures; leaves ovate, long pointed, ¼ of an inch long or less;
cones purplish-brown, much reflexed, clustered at the ends of the
branches, ½ inch long with 6 oblong thin leathery scales with thickened
spine-bearing tips.
Occasionally met with in the lower valleys on the western slope of the
Rockies; becoming an immense forest tree in the moist valleys of the
Selkirks where it forms a striking feature of the landscape.