52 PINACE.VE 



sprays; bark ou young trees whitish or silvery, on old trunks dark red, very 

 deeply and roughly fissured, in section showing reddish brown areas set oft' 

 by a sharply defined purple mesh; leaves % to 11-2 inches long, ridged above 

 and below so as to be equally 4-sided, although more or less compressed, not 

 contracted at base or scarcel,v so. acTitish at apex, those on the iinder side of 

 the branches spreading right and left, in the top of the tree more thickened, 

 erect, incurved and hiding the upper side of the branch ; staminate catkins 

 dark red, about 3 lines long; cones, when young, beautiful dull purple objects, 

 becoming brown when mature, 4 to 8 inches long, 2i/o to SY-j inches in diameter, 

 broadly oval in outline, the broad scales with upturned edges; bracts very 

 variable in form and length, sometimes concealed beneath the scales, sometimes 

 conspicuousl.v exserted and reflexed, their terminal portion commonly trans- 

 versely oblong, or broad with a short spreading awl-like point or pointless; 

 seeds 7 lines long with a semi-tlabelliform wing 8 lines long and 8 to 11 lines 

 broad; cotyledons 9 to 13. 



Slountain slopes and ridges: Sierra Nevada, 5,000 to 8,500 feet, from the 

 Greenhorn I\Its. northward to Lassen Peak and J\It. Shasta; thence ranging 

 into southern Oregon, westw'ard to Marble Mt., and southward along the 

 Yollo Bolly range as far as l\It. Hull and Snow "Sit. Wood straight, fine- 

 grained, heavy and very durable. Large sticks from this tree are used as 

 shaft timbers in Sierra Nevada gold mines. The most beautiful tree in the 

 upper portion of the main timber belt of the Sierras. 



Eefs.— Abies magnipic.^ Murray, Proc. E. Hort. Soc. vol. 3, p. 318. f. 2.5-33 (1863), type loc. 

 central Sierra Nevada; first cliscovered by Capt. J. C. Fremont. A. nobilis var. magnifica 

 Kellogg, For. Trees Cal. p. 29 (1882) ; Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. vol. 22, pp. 187, 189, figs. 

 20, 21 (1886). 



4. A. nobilis Lindl. Noble Fir. Forest tree 80 to 250 feet high, with slen- 

 der branchlets and roughly broken trunk bark ; leaves on the lower branches 

 fiat, sharply and deeply grooved above, on upper branches rounded above and 

 obscurely ridged below, erect, % to 1% inches long; cones oblong-cylindrical, 

 4 to 5 inches long, 2 to 2i/o inches in diameter; scales surpassed and often 

 wholly concealed b.y the reflexed spatulate bracts w'hich are rounded and 

 fimbriate and tipped with an awl-like point. 



Coast Ranges and (Cascades of Washington and Oregon, ranging south to the 

 Siskiyou llts. in southern (3regon and to Trinity Sununit in California (W.L.J, 

 no. 2079). 



Refs. — Abies xobii.is Lindley, Penny Cycl. vol. 1, p. 30 (1833), type loe. Cascade Mts. just 

 south of Columbia Kiver, Douglas. 



5. A. venusta Koch. Santa Lucia Fir. (Fig. 11.) Singular montane tree 

 30 to 75 or 100 feet high with a narrow^ crown abruptly tapering above into a 

 steeple-like top ; trunk i/i to 2i/2 feet in diameter, vested in light reddisli 

 brown bark, and bearing short slender declined or drooping branches nearly 

 or quite to the ground ; leaves stiff, sharp-pointed, dark green and nearly 

 flat above, below with a white band on either side of the strong median 

 ridge, II/4 or mostly 1% to 214 inches long. 1 to I'i; lines wide, mostly 2-ranked ; 

 staminate catkins yellowish, fading reddish, broadly cylindrical, % to 1% 

 inches long; ovulate catkins broadly oblong in outline, yellowish green, 1 to 

 IV2 inches long; cones elliptic-oblong, 21/0 to 4 inches long, li/o to 2 inches 

 thick, borne on peduncles y^ inch long which arise from a rosette-like cluster 

 of broad thin scales of the winter bud; bracts wedge-shaped, truncate or 



