PINE FAMILY 



65 



6. ABIES [Tourn.] Hill, Brit. Herb. 509. 1756. 



Pyramidal trees with light-colored brittle wood, very resinous, smooth or finely roughened 

 bark and slender horizontal branches in regular whorls of 4-6, clothed with once- or twice- 

 branched lateral branchlets forming flattened masses of foliage. Leaves linear, sessile, 

 appearing 2-ranked by a twist at the base, or spreading from all sides of the branchlets, 

 persistent usually 8-10 years, usually flat on sterile branches and young trees, on fruiting 

 branches usually 4-sided and curved upward, stomatiferous on the lower surface or in 

 some species on both sides. Flowers axillary, from buds formed the previous year, sur- 

 rounded at base by the enlarged bud-scales, the staminate numerous on the lower side of 

 the branchlets, oval or oblong-cylindric, their anthers yellow or scarlet, with knob-like 

 terminal appendages ; pistillate on the upper side of the branchlets, usually only near the 

 top of the tree, erect, their scales numerous, rounded, much shorter than the bracts. Cones 

 erect, ovoid to oblong-cylindric, maturing the first autumn ; scales thin, incurved at the 

 broad rounded apex, wedge-shaped below and usually narrowed into a short stalk, falling 

 at maturity with the bracts and seeds, leaving the naked axis persistent on the branches. 

 Seeds with large resin ducts, covered on the upper surface by the wing ; cotyledons 4-10. 

 [Ancient name of the fir.] 



About 25 species confined to the subarctic and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Ten 

 species occur in North America. Type species, Abies picea (L.) Lindl. 



Bracts concealed by the scales or when exserted not furnished with long awl-like tips. 

 . Leaves dark green above with stomata only on the silvery white surface; bracts concealed by the scales. 



Bracts gradually narrowed into a slender tip; cones oblong, purple; leaves erect on the branches. 



1. A. amabilis. 

 Bracts abruptly narrowed into a short point; cones cylindric, green; leaves 2-ranked forming flat 

 sprays. 2. A. grandis. 



Leaves blue-green with stomata on all sides. 



Bracts scarcely half the length of the scales; leaves flat. 



Resin ducts sunken in the leaf tissue (seen in cross section); bracts long-pointed. 



3. A. lasiocarpa. 

 Resin ducts next the epidermis; bracts abruptly short-pointed. 4. A. concotor. 



Bracts three-fourths as long or longer than the scales; leaves 4-sided, usually short and rigid. 



Bracts shorter than the scales or when exserted much narrower than the scales. 



S. A. magnifica. 



Bracts well exserted and covering the scales. 6. A. nobilis. 



Bracts with elongated awl-like tips, 2 or 3 times as long as the scales. 7. A. venitsta. 



1. Abies amabilis (Dougl.) Forbes. Amabilis or Lovely Fir. 



Fig. 138. 



Picea amabilis Dougl.; Loud. Arb. Brit. 4: 2342. 1838. 



Abies amabilis Forbes, Pinetum Wob. 125. pi. 144. 1839. 



Abies grandis densifolia Engelm. Trans. St. Louis Acad. 

 3: 599. 1878. 



A large tree attaining a maximum height of 

 85 m. with a trunk 1.5-2 m. in diameter; branch- 

 lets stout, finelj' pubescent for several years ; 

 bark thin, smooth, and pale, or, on old trees, 

 becoming 5-10 cm. thick near the ground and 

 divided into small plates. Leaves erect on the 

 branches by the curving of those on the lower 

 side, flat, dark green, deeply grooved and shin- 

 ing on the upper surface, silvery white beneath 

 on either side of the prominent midrib, 2-3 cm. 

 long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, recurved on the margins, 

 obtuse or notched at the apex on sterile branches, 

 acute on the fertile branches ; staminate flowers 

 bright fed, the pistillate narrowly cylindric, dark 

 purple; cones oblong, purple, 9-15 cm. long; 

 scale puberulent, 25-30 mm. wide and nearly as 

 long, gradually narrowed from the rounded apex; 

 bracts scarcely half as long as the scales, ob- 

 long-obovate, slightly toothed and tapering to a 

 long tip ; seeds 12 mm. long, their wings twice 

 as long. 



Coniferous forests, Canadian Zone; southern Alaska, southward along the Cascade Mountains and 

 Coast Ranges of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, reaching its southern limit at Crater Lake, and 

 at Saddle Mountain, about 25 miles south of the Columbia River in the Coast Ranges. Wood close-grained, 

 pale brown, light and weak but hard, and used for interior finishing. Type locality: high mountains, Oregon, 

 near the Cascades of the Columbia. 



