Some of the largest trees rise with scarcely a limb 150 feet, and above that is the small crown. The bark of young trees is covered with blisters filled with resin. The bark is thin and smooth until the tree is a century or more old, after which it becomes rougher, and near the base may be two and a half inches thick. It is of very slow growth, and a century hardly produces a trunk of small sawlog size. The leaves are dark green above, and whitish below. They are much crowded on the twigs, those on the underside rising with a twist at the base, and standing nearly erect. They are longer than those on the twig’s upper side. The purple cones are conspicuous objects on the tree, are from three and a half to six inches long, and bear abundance of seeds which are well dispersed by wind. However, the reproduction of this tree is not plentiful. The species holds its own, and not much more. When artificial reforestation takes place in this country, if that time ever comes, lovely fir will receive scant consideration, because of its discouragingly slow growth. It ranks with lodgepole pine in that respect. Nature can afford to wait two hundred years for a forest to mature, but men will not plant and protect when the prospect of returns is so remote. The wood is light, weak, moderately stiff and hard. The heartwood is pale brown, the sap nearly white. The summerwood appears in thin but well-marked bands in the annual rings, and the medullary rays are large enough to show slightly in quarter-sawed lumber. Growing as it does, interspersed with really valuable woods, the lovely fir is not highly thought of from a commercial standpoint. However, it is exploited in conjunction with the other species and turned into lumber and general structural material. A considerable quantity finds a market as interior finish and other millwork. It has many of the properties which fit it for the manufacture of packing boxes, particularly those intended for dried fruit and light merchandise. It bears considerable resemblance to spruce. The utilization of this and similar species of western fir for pulp has been suggested, but little has been done. It has been planted ornamentally in parts of Europe, but there is no comparison between the decorative appearance of this fir and its associated species, the others which are in cultivation being much superior. Removal from the old habitat militates greatly against its natural beauty and reduces it to the level of the ordinary.