CONIFERS 



65 



at elevations of about 3000 above the sea on both slopes of the outer western rido-e 

 of the Santa Lucia Mountains in Monterey County, California. 



Occasionally and successfully grown as an ornamental tree in the milder parts of 

 Great Britain and in northern Italy. 



2. Leaves mostly 4.-sided, blue-green. 

 * Cones purple. 



8. Abies nobilis, Lindl. Red Fir. Larch. 



Leaves marked on the upper surface with deep sharply defined grooves, rounded 

 aud obscurely ribbed on the lower surface, stomatiferous above and below, dark 

 or light blue-green, often very glaucous during their first season, crowded in 

 several rows, those on the lower side of the branch two-ranked by the twisting 

 of their bases, the others crowded, strongly incurved, with the points erect or 

 pointing away from the end of the branch, on young plants and on the lower 



piQ 6o 



sterile branches of old trees flat, rounded, usually slightly notched at the apex, I'-l-j' 

 long, about -^q' wide, on fertile branches much thickened and almost equally 4-sided, 

 acuminate, with long rigid callous tips, ^'-f' long, on leading shoots flat, gradually 

 narrowed from the base, acuminate, with long rigid points, about 1' long. Flo"wers: 

 staminate reddish purple ; pistillate often scattered over the upper part of the tree, 

 with broad rounded scales much shorter than their nearly orbicular bracts erose on 

 the margins and contracted above into slender elongated strongly reflexed tips. 

 Fruit oblong-cylindrical, slightly narrowed but full and rounded at the apex, 4'-5' 

 long, purple or olive-brown, pubescent, with scales about one third wider than long, 

 gradually narrowed from the rounded apex to the base, or full at the sides, rounded 

 and denticulate above the middle and sharply contracted and wedge-shaped below, 

 nearly or entirely covered by their strongly reflexed pale green spatulate bracts, full 

 and rounded above, fimbriate on the margins, with broad foliaceous midribs produced 

 into short broad flattened points; seeds 1' long, pale reddish brown, about as long 

 as their wings, gradually narrowed from below to the nearly truncate slightly 

 rounded apsx. 



A tree, in old age with a comparatively broad somewhat rounded head, usually 

 150-200 and occasionally 250 high, with a trunk 6-8 in diameter, short rigid 



