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Steep Trails-Part22_John Muir(1838-1914)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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are three firs, three or four pines, two cypresses, a yew, and another

spruce, the Abies Pattoniana[25]. This last is perhaps the most



beautiful of all the spruces, but, being comparatively small and

growing only far back on the mountains, it receives but little



attention from most people. Nor is there room in a work like this for

anything like a complete description of it, or of the others I have



just mentioned. Of the three firs, one (Picea grandis)[26], grows

near the coast and is one of the largest trees in the forest,



sometimes attaining a height of two hundred and fifty feet. The

timber, however, is inferior in quality and not much sought after



while so much that is better is within reach. One of the others (P.

amabilis, var. nobilis) forms magnificent forests by itself at a



height of about three thousand to four thousand feet above the sea.

The rich plushy, plumelike branches grow in regular whorls around the



trunk, and on the topmost whorls, standing erect, are the large,

beautiful cones. This is far the most beautiful of all the firs. In



the Sierra Nevada it forms a considerableportion of the main forest

belt on the western slope, and it is there that it reaches its



greatest size and greatest beauty. The third species (P. subalpina)

forms, together with Abies Pattoniana, the upper edge of the



timberline on the portion of the Cascades opposite the Sound. A

thousand feet below the extreme limit of tree growth it occurs in



beautiful groups amid parklike openings where flowers grow in

extravagant profusion.



The pines are nowhereabundant in the State. The largest, the yellow

pine (Pinus ponderosa), occurs here and there on margins of dry



gravelly prairies, and only in such situations have I yet seen it in

this State. The others (P. monticola and P. contorta) are mostly



restricted to the upper slopes of the mountains, and though the former

of these two attains a good size and makes excellent lumber, it is



mostly beyond reach at present and is not abundant. One of the

cypresses (Cupressus Lawsoniana)[27] grows near the coast and is a



fine large tree, clothed like the arbor-vitae in a gloriouswealth of

flat, feathery branches. The other is found here and there well up



toward the edge of the timberline. This is the fine Alaska cedar (C.

Nootkatensis), the lumber from which is noted for its durability,



fineness of grain, and beautiful yellow color, and for its fragrance,

which resembles that of sandalwood. The Alaska Indians make their



canoe paddles of it and weave matting and coarse cloth from the

fibrous brown bark.



Among the different kinds of hardwood trees are the oak, maple,

madrona, birch, alder, and wild apple, while large cottonwoods are



common along the rivers and shores of the numerous lakes.

The most striking of these to the traveler is the Menzies arbutus, or



madrona, as it is popularly called in California. Its curious red and

yellow bark, large thick glossy leaves, and panicles of waxy-looking



greenish-white urn-shaped flowers render it very conspicuous. On the

boles of the younger trees and on all the branches, the bark is so



smooth and seamless that it does not appear as bark at all, but rather

the naked wood. The whole tree, with the exception of the larger part



of the trunk, looks as though it had been thoroughly peeled. It is

found sparsely scattered along the shores of the Sound and back in the



forests also on open margins, where the soil is not too wet, and

extends up the coast on Vancouver Island beyond Nanaimo. But in no



part of the State does it reach anything like the size and beauty of

portion" target="_blank" title="n.比率 vt.使成比例">proportions that it attains in California, few trees here being more



than ten or twelve inches in diameter and thirty feet high. It is,

however, a very remarkable-looking object, standing there like some



lost or runaway native of the tropics, naked and painted, beside that

dark mossy ocean of northland conifers. Not even a palm tree would



seem more out of place here.

The oaks, so far as my observation has reached, seem to be most



abundant and to grow largest on the islands of the San Juan and

Whidbey Archipelago. One of the three species of maples that I have



seen is only a bush that makes tangles on the banks of the rivers. Of

the other two one is a small tree, crooked and moss-grown, holding out



its leaves to catch the light that filters down through the close-set

spires of the great spruces. It grows almost everywhere throughout



the entire extent of the forest until the higher slopes of the

mountains are reached, and produces a very picturesque and delightful



effect; relieving the bareness of the great shafts of the evergreens,




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