162 Postelsia 
mountains of southern British Columbia, AlI- 
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 moncecious, term- 
inal or im 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 
