with P. firma, Sieb. and Zuce., and its habit when full 
grown, according to Mr. Maries, is that of P. bifida, 
Sieb. and Zucc. No one but a botanist traversing the 
Islands of Japan with an eye especially directed to its 
Silver Firs can determine whether species or varieties or 
synonyms are represented under the above names; and a 
reference to the remarks made as to its European and 
Western Asiatic congeners under tab. 6992 (Abies Nord- 
manniana) shows that the difficulty of limiting the species 
of this genus is not confined to its Eastern Asiatic 
members. | 
The specimen figured was taken from a young plant — 
eight feet high, growing on the mound near the Water-lily 
House in the Royal Gardens, in 1887, since which the tree 
has not coned,. 
Desor. A tree fifty or sixty feet high, with spreading 
branches ; bark rough, whitish. Leaves crowded, sessile, 
obscurely distichous, spreading and up-curved, one-half 
to one inch long, linear-oblong, obtuse, tip rounded or 
notched; young glaucous beneath; midrib depressed 
above, prominent beneath, margins subrecurved, resin- 
canals midway between the margin and midrib. Male 
catkins three-quarters of an inch long, cylindric, obtuse ; 
anthers subglobose ; bracts obtuse or bifid. Cone three to _ 
four inches long, cylindric, obtuse at both ends; bracts 
obovate denticulate, much shorter than the transversely 
oblong denticulate scales. Seed with the obliquely wedge- 
shaped wing nearly as long as the scale.—J. D. H. 
Figs. 1 and 2, Front and back view of leaves; 3, scale and bracts; 4, seeds 
and scale; 5, seed; 6, transverse section of leaf, showing the resin-canals :— 
all enlarged. 
