A tree, in old age occasionally somewhat round-topped, frequently 200° high, with a trunk 8°—10° in diameter and often naked for half the height of the tree, comparatively short small branches, the upper somewhat ascending, the lower pendulous, and stout light yellow-green branchlets pointing forward, slightly puberulous during their first season, becoming light red-brown and lustrous and ultimately gray or silvery white. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, ¼′⅓′ long, their bright chestnut-brown scales with prominent midribs produced into short tips. Bark becoming 4′—6′ thick near the ground, deeply divided into broad rounded ridges broken by cross fissures and covered by dark red-brown scales. Wood light, soft, not strong, comparatively durable, light red-brown, with thick somewhat darker sapwood; largely used for fuel, and in California occasionally manufactured into coarse lumber employed in the construction of cheap buildings and for packing-cases. Distribution. Cascade Mountains of southern Oregon, southward over the mountain ranges of northern California (summits of the Trinity and Salmon Mountains and on the inner north coast ranges), and along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada to the divide between White and Kern Rivers; common in southern Oregon at elevations between 5000° and 7000° above the sea, forming sometimes nearly pure forests; very abundant on the Sierra Nevada, and the principal tree in the forest belt at elevations between 6000° and 9000°; ascending towards the southern extremity of its range to over 10,000°. Small stunted trees from the neighborhood of Meadow Lake, Sierra County, California, with yellowish cones have been described as var. _xancocarpa_ Lemm. Often planted as an ornamental tree in western and central Europe, and sometimes hardy in the United States as far north as eastern Massachusetts. A distinct form is Abies magnifica var. shastensis Lemm. Red Fir. [Illustration: Fig. 60] On the mountains of southern Oregon and at high elevations on those of northern California, and on the southern Sierra Nevada, occurs this form distinguished only by the longer rounded or obtusely pointed (not acute) bright yellow bracts which sometimes cover nearly half their scales. 9. Abies venusta K. Koch. Silver Fir. _Abies bracteata_ D. Don. [Illustration: Fig. 61]