Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol01.djvu/111

 than Big Meadows, and other localities are mentioned by Sargent, who says that Professor Brewer, after whom the tree was named, had previously, in 1863, found a tree which was probably the same species, on Black Butte to the north of Strawberry Valley, at the western base of Mount Shasta, where, however, it cannot now be rediscovered.

Another locality for Brewer's spruce was found in 1898, by Mr. F. Anderson, on an unnamed but conspicuous peak at the headwaters of Elk Creek, about two or three miles west of Marble Mountain and eighty miles west of Mount Shasta. The elevation of the peak is about 8000 feet, and several hundred specimens were found growing near the summit; the trunks were 16 to 20 inches in diameter at 3 feet from the ground, and there were plenty of cones on the tops of the trees which were about 80 feet high.

It grows on the Siskiyous in company with Pinus ponderosa, P. Lambertiana, and P. monticola, but usually gregariously in groves by itself. The soil and climate are dry, but there seems to be no special reason why this tree has proved in the eastern States of North America so difficult to cultivate; and as some of the conifers of the Pacific Coast which will not grow, or are not hardy in the eastern States, as, for instance, Abies bracteata and Picea sitchensis, thrive in England, and the trees with which it is associated in America are hardy and produce good seed here, we need not despair of seeing this beautiful tree established in the south of England.

The late Mr. R. Douglas, of Waukegan, Ill., visited Oregon in 1891 on purpose to obtain the seeds, and collected a large quantity of cones, from which several hundred thousand seedlings were grown. But those sown in America perished in their first and second years from causes which are not known, and attempts to raise the tree in the Arnold Arboretum have also failed.

Some of the seed, however, was raised by the late Baron von St. Paul Illaire at Fischbach in Silesia, which were alive in 1895; and small plants were reported in 1903 to be growing in the Royal Pomological Institute at Proskau in Silesia.

The late Mr. Johnson, of Astoria, Oregon, transplanted a few small trees to his nursery, some of which are, I believe, growing near Portland. Brandagee found a few two-year-old seedlings among the old trees, and half a dozen of them reached the Arnold Arboretum alive.

One of these was sent from there to Kew in November 1897, and is growing near the Pagoda, being about 2½ feet in height at the present time (March 1905). It is the only living specimen known to us in Britain.

The tree is said by Professor Sheldon to grow from 100 to 150 feet high, but Sargent gives 120 feet as the extreme height, and Messrs. Jack and Rehder did not see any higher than about 110 feet by about 9 feet in circumference. Douglas informed Baron von St. Paul that the largest tree measured by him was 121 feet high, and 2 feet 11 inches in diameter at 7½ feet from the ground. As the region in which it grows is so limited, and forest fires are very prevalent and