SN Ee ee 
Ss: Abies (Tourn.} Hill. Fir. 
Trees with needle-like foliage, alternate ana syiral, curling 
ywards or appearing as in flat sprays due to a txist rear the base, 
soft, blunt, flattened, not decurrent, persistent for several years, 
leaving a circular flat scar on tne branch when shed. ‘the staminate and 
ovulate cones axillary, borne on the same tree, the former on the lower 
gides of the branches, anther sacs 2; the latter formed of a spiral series 
of fertile sporophylls (scales) each bearing two ovules on the upper surface, 
each subtended by an inconspicuous bract; fruit a more or less woody cone, 
erect, maturing the first year, the scales thin, falling from the persis- 
tent axis when the seeds are shed; seeds winged; cotyledons several. 
GIR EM ERR Re mn TT Re 
0 Lowermost branches bearing needles apparently in ¢-ranked 
) sprays; oil-ducts minute, at the edge of the leaf; upper 
A surface of leaf dark green and glossy, without stomata; 
: Nene: greeny | 2. Ae grandis 
O All needles curved upwards, none appearing two ranked; 
, oil ducts visible to the naked eye, midway between 
AS midvein and margin; upper surface usually bearing 
stomata; cones purplish blacky /, Ap lasiocarpa 
1. As lasiocarpa (Hook) Nutt. Alpine Fir. A striking and 
beautiful tree of higher elevations characterized in our region by the 
very narrow, Spire-like crown and dark foliase; commonly 20-25 m. tall, 
rarely as much as ifn. , with DeBeH. of 30-45 cm. Branches spreading, 
soon curved on the lower parts, strongly so in old trees, branchlets 
curving, smoke-colored with a yellowish tinge from the leaf scars, _ 
pubescent; young bark ashy sray, mottled with lighter splashes due to 
crustose lichens, smooth, the lenticels prominent, transverse, 1-2 cme 
long, scurfy, resin pockets conspicuous, mature bark scarcely 1 cm. thick, 
fissured only at the base of the tree, tne furrows narrow, irregular ; 
crown persistent to the base, narr wly conical, very acute, dark green, 
the interior dark, due to hanging Alectoria which gives the foliage a very 
dark: color at a distance; needles dense, curving upwards, never in 2-ranked 
sprays, 2-225 cm. long, 1.5 mn. wide, persistent 7-8 years or more, glossy, 
the stomata usually evident on both surfaces, especially so beneath, the 
vein impressed, elevated beneath, the margins concave, oil ducts visible to 
the naked eye, midway between the margin and midvein, apex blunt, sometimes 
notched, the needles of the uppermost branches very acute and subsrinose, 
rigid, the base narrowed, twisted, then somewhat expanded at the joint, the . 
scar margin not elevated. Staminate cones 15-20 mm. longs, the anthers 
20-30, deop bluish-purple, raised on a short stalk; ovulate cones borne 
at the very apex of the tree, clustered, Gull purplish-black, cylindrical, 
5-8 cm. lon, 2-225 cm. wide, rounded at the base, blunt at the apex but 
scarcely truncate or concave, tne scales broadly cuneate, 14-15 mn. wide, j 
rounded-truncate, the exposed surface velvety pubescent, bract 5-6 mn. long, ; 
oval, hardly retuse, tne mucro 2.5-3 ma. lon., the margin finely but 
irrecularly toothed; seed 44.5 mm. long, the wing oval-cuneate, 1 cm. long, 
7~S mn. wide, crinkly. {i~oubalsina sneeimey PG fad. Goacan ke 
poe 
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