TO THE HISTORY OF CERTAIN CO^S^IFERS. 171 



Abies amabilis, Forles. (Plate II.) 



ALies amabilis, Forbes, Pinetum Woburn, p. 125, t. 44 ; Lindley 



and Gordon ; Carriere; Eiigelmann in Gard. Chron, December 4, 



1880, p. 720, f. 136-141 ; Veitch ; Sargent, Beport on the Forests 



of North America (1884), p. 213. 



Pinus amabilis, Douglas^ Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. p. 93 (1825) ; End- 

 liclier^ Farlatore^ etc. 



Piceaamabilis, London^ Gordon,^ Newberry, etc. 



Piuus grandis, Lambert [not Donglasl. • 



Abies grandis, var. deusiflora, Engelmann olim {Engelmann in 

 litt. !). 



" Valley of the Eraser Eiver, Engelmann and Sargent, and 

 probably farther norlh; south along the Cascade Mountains of 

 Washington Territory and Oregon." Eraser Eiyer, Jeffrey 393 ! 

 Cascade Mountains, Lyall ! 



F 



In the year 1880 Dr. Engelmann, accompanied by Prof. Sargent 

 and Dr. Parry, ascended Silver Mountain near Port Hope, Eraser 

 River, and discovered at an altitude of 4000-5000 feet a Eir 

 which they recognized to be the Pinus amabilis which Douglas 



F 



had first made known fifty -five years previously, but the identity 

 of which had become confused. A few weeks after, Prof. Sargent 

 ascended the very mountain, just south of the Cascades of the 

 Colombia, where Douglas originally discovered the plant. Dr. 

 Engelmann thus describes the tree : — 



" It is a magnificent tree, at about 4000 feet altitude ; the 

 largest specimen, growing on the banks of a mouutain-torrent, 

 was probably 150 to 200 feet high, with a trunk about 4 feet in 

 diameter, branching to the ground and forming a perfect cone of 

 dark green foliage. The bark of the old tree is 1| to 2 inches 

 thick, furrowed and reddish grey ; that of younger trees, less 

 than 100 years old, is quite thin and smooth, light grey or almost 

 white. It certainly is very closely allied to A. grandis, but ia 

 readily distinguished by its very crowded darker green foliage 

 and its large dark purple cones. The technical characters are 

 the following : — i 



" Leaves densely crowded, dark green, channelled, and with- 

 out stomata above, keeled, and with two white bands below, 

 slightly notched on the lateral and sterile branches, acute on the 

 leaders and on the cone-bearing branches (these acute leaves often 

 with a few stomata on the upper side towards the tip) (fig. 1) ; 

 resin-ducts close to the epidermis of the lower side. Cones 



p2 



