MONTANA BOTANY NOTES !) 



ABIES, FIR. 



Our two firs have the ])racts concealed, being shorter than the 

 scales. The trees are spire-like, with short branches either horizontal 

 or drooping-. Twigs stout. Wood soft and rather 'brittle, iwhile light in 

 weight. Good for finishing lumber, but not good for general purposes, soon 

 rotting; not as resinous as most wood in this family. The young bark is 

 not roughened, white or light and full of mostly large transverse blisters 

 containing liquid resin. The older bark is very thick and corky and not 

 flaking up, but growing in thick ridges. 



Abies amabilis (Loud.) Forbes. Blankensbip is right in saying that this 

 species does not grow in Montana, but it does not appear that Rydberg in- 

 tended to say (Fl. Mont. p. 12) that it grows in the state. He seems to have 

 inserted it and described it so that it might be looked for. Surfaces of 

 leaves not differing greatly in color, rather light. 



Surfaces of leaves not differing greatly in color, rather light. Tips of 

 trees lang and needle-like. Cones nearly black. Mostly alpine on 

 slopes. A. lasiocarpa. 



Surfaces of leaves conspicuously different in color, the upper dark-green 

 and glossy, the lower silvery. Cones greenish-brown. Trees of the 

 low lands along streams. A. grand!*. 



Abies lasiocarpa (Hook) Nutt. Sylva 3 138 (1849), pinus lasiocarpa Hook- 

 er Fl. Bor. Am. 2 163 (1842), Abies su'balpina Eng. and var. fallax Eng. Every- 

 where next to timber line on the mountains (though not seen on McDonald 

 peak) where it grows not only along streams, but on slopes and mesas. There 

 it forms the chief forest tree, from 50 to 100 feet high, though it is inter- 

 mixed with the spruce and pine. The branches are short, stiff and ragged, 

 mostly horizontal. It also occurs sparingly at Swan Lake and along the 

 Swan Lake road iwith A. grandis. It is usually a tree about 2 feet in diame- 

 ter, and the leaves, especially the upper ones are short, rarely over an inch 

 long and often little flattened and angled. MacDougal peak, Umbach. 



Abies grandis Lindley Penn. Cycl. 1 30 (1833). Great Silver Fir. This is 

 frequent along streams and rivers and at springs and swamps in the low 

 lands and upward as far as subalpine, where it is replaced by A. lasiocarpa. 

 It never forms a conspicuous part of the forest though it is a picturesque tree. 

 All the branches are much drooping. Bark without roughness, except the 

 blisters, which are 13-19 mm. long. On trees over 6 inches thick the lower 

 bark begins to get corky and split. All but the season's twigs reddish brown, 

 these apple green and minutely pubescent. Scar circular and slightly raised. 

 Bark of old trees near the base (which are 2-3 feet in diameter) is 2-3 inches 

 thick and corky, but gray, and the lines of Assuring are not so wavy as in 

 the red fir, the areas smaller. It occurs all around the lake and in all the 

 canons; also at Hot Springs. Tree often 150 feet high. "Not common in the 

 Sperry Glacier region. 



Pseudotsuga mucronata (Raf.) Sudworth Cont. Nat. Herb. 3 266 (1895). 

 Abies mucronata Raf. Atl. Jour. 120 (1832), P. taxifolia Britton, P. Douglasii 

 Carriere. This is very common in moist woods everywhere and on moist 

 slopes almost to timber line, thus forming a large and valuable timber tree. 

 It forms about half of the forests in this region, preferring the uplands and 

 well drained slopes. The iwood is reddish, compact and tough, and heavy, 

 not easily rotting. Trees often 4 feet in diameter. The outline is oblong 

 to oblanceloate, with a short triangular tip. Twigs inclined to be reddish. 

 Leaves rather thin, petioled, flat, appearing rather 2-ranked by the bending 

 of the petiole, rather dark green, leaving oval scars. The bark is very thick 

 and deeply cracked much higher up the trunk than in the firs. The branches 

 are slender and inclined to droop. Tree cone-bearing all over and not at 

 the tip exclusively as in the firs. Easily distinguished from the firs by the 

 pendulous cones and reddish twigs, and from the spruces by the absence of 

 tooth-like cushions on the twigs, and by the presence of an exserted, 3- 

 toothed tongue under each scale, and by the very thick and corky bark, which 

 is thin and scaly in the spruces. This tree is beginning to be killed out at 

 Bigfoot by a borer. Poison, Umbach. Not seen in the Sperry Glacier region. 



