i62 IPos t c Isia 



mountains of southern British Columbia, Al- 

 berta and the adjacent parts of the United States, 

 may possibly be found in the high mountains of 

 northern Vancouver Island. 



Abies. Adanson. Fam. PL 2:480. 1763. 



Evergreen trees without special dwarf leaf- 

 bearing shoots. Leaves flat or more or less quad- 

 rangular, sessile or short-petioled, spirally ar- 

 ranged but often twisted so as to appear more 

 or less two-ranked. Flowers monoecious, term- 

 inal or in the axils of leaves of the previous 

 season's growth; the staminate pedicelled, com- 

 posed of numerous spirally arranged stamens, 

 with basal involucred scales; anther sacs two, 

 surmounted by an orbicular or knob-like ap- 

 pendage; pollen grains with or without bladder- 

 like appendages. Fruit a more or less woody 

 cone, maturing in one season, its scales not 

 thickened nor callous at the tips, the upper and 

 lower scales of the cone commonly smaller than 

 the others and sterile. Seeds winged. 



A genus of about fifty species, natives of the 

 boreal and north temperate regions and the ad- 

 jacent mountainous parts of the tropics. About 



