CONIFEE-ffi. 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



97 



^enus In which he united the Spruces, Firs, and Hemlocks, and was afterwards adopted by Linn^us, 

 who, in his genus Abies, also united the Spruces and Hemlocks with the Silver Firs. 



1 A. P. Anderson, Bot. Gazette^ xxiv. 294, f. 



2 Henry, Nov. Act. Acad. Coss. Leop. xix. 100, t. 14. 



3 Bailly, Rev. Hort. 1894, 275, f. 102 {Du Role Protecteur du 

 Feuillage chez les Coniferes). 



* The color of tlie coues of Abies cannot be depended on as a 

 means of determining the species. The cones of the European 

 Ahies Picea in the Black Forest, according to Engelmann, are of 

 all variations of color between light green and dark purple (see 

 Trans. St. Louis Acad. iii. 603), and on different trees of Ahies con- 

 color of western America the cones are light or dark green, purple, 

 or bright canary-yellow. Nor can good specific characters be 

 found in the shape of the cone-scales, as these vary in the same 

 species, some cones having scales which are longer and others 

 which are shorter than they are broad. More constant in shape 

 are the bracts of the cone-scales, which, although they are very 

 nearly alike on certain species, usually vary only slightly on differ- 

 ent individuals of the same species. 



^ The species of Abies may be grouped in three sections: — 

 EuABiEs (Balsamece and Grandesy Engelmann, Trans. St. Louis 



Acad. iii. 596 [1873]). Leaves flat, grooved above, stomatiferous 



on the upper surface only on upper fertile branches. 



Bracteates (Engelmann, I. c. in part). Leaves flat, slightly 



rounded and without stomata on the upper surface, alike on 



sterile and fertile branches. 



NoBiLE3 (Engelmann, I. c). Leaves stomatiferous on both 



surfaces, crowded, incurved, tetragonal on fertile and in one spe- 

 cies on sterile lower branches. 



^ In France a hybrid Abies has been raised by Monsieur H. L. 

 de Vilmorin, who fertilized in 1867 a female flower of Ahies Pin- 

 sapo with pollen of Ahies Cephalonica. By this operation a single 

 seed was obtained which produced a plant distinguished by its 

 extreme vigor, resembling its pollen parent in habit, in the length, 

 coloring, and subdistichous arrangement of the leaves, and in the 

 shape of its cones, while in the shape and arrangement of its 

 blanches and in the thickness of its leaves it resembles Ahies Pin- 

 sapo. (See Bailly, /. c. 1889, 115. — Beissner, Handh, Nadelk. 

 443.) 



Ahies insignis of French gardens is believed to be a hybrid 

 obtained from seeds produced on a plant of Ahies Pinsapo In Mon- 

 sieur Renault's nursery at Bulgn^ville and accidentally fertilized 

 with the pollen of an Ahies Nordmanniana growing near it. An- 

 other supposed hybrid, Ahies Nordmanniana speciosa, was created 

 by the French nurseryman Creux by fertilizing the pistillate flowers 

 of Ahies Nordmanniana with the pollen of Ahies Pinsapo. (See 

 Bailly, I. c. 1890, 230. — Beissner, /. c. 437, 438.) 



' Ahies religiosaj Lindley, Penny CycL i. 31 (1833). — Carrifere, 

 Traite Conif. 201. — Roezl, Cat. Conif. Mex. 9. — Engelmann, 

 ^ c. iii, 600. — Hemsley, Bot. Biol. Am. Cent. iii. 190. — Masters, 

 Gard. Chron. n. ser. xxiii. 56, f. 13 ; ser. 3, ix. 304, f. 69, 70 ; Jour. 

 Linn. Soc. xxii, 194, t. 6. — Beissner, I. c. 490. 



Plnus religiosaj Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, Nov. Gen. et 



Spec. ii. 4 (1817). — Kunth, Syn. PI. JSquin. i. 352. — Schlech- 



tendal & Chamisso, Linna^a, v. 77. — Lambert, Pinus, ed. 2, ii. t. — 



Schlechtendal, Linniea, xii. 486. — Autoine, Conif. 75, t. 28, f. 



2. — Endlicher, Syn. Conif. 92. — Parlatore, De Candolle Prodr. 



xvi. pt. ii. 420. — W. R. M'Nab, Proc R. Irish Acad. ser. 2, ii. 



676, t. 46, f. 2. 

 Pinus hirtella, Humboldt, Bonpland & Kunth, I c. (1817).— 



Kunth, I. c. — Schlechtendal, I. c. 487. — Antoiue, /. c. 80. — 

 Endlicher, I c. 93. 



Ahies hirtella, Lindley, I. c. (1833). — Carriere, I. c. 203.— 

 Roezl, I. c. 



Picea religiosa, Loudon, Arh. Brit. iv. 2349, f. 2257 (1838). — 

 A. Murray, Gard. Chron. n. ser. v. 560, f. 100. 



Picea hirtellaf Loudon, I. c. (1838). 

 A hies religiosa, which grows in forests on the highlands of central 

 Mexico up to elevations of nine thousand feet above the sea and 

 extends to the mountains of Guatemala, is a large tree sometimes 

 one hundred and fifty feet in height, with acute or rarely obtuse 

 leaves, dark green and lustrous above and silvery white below, and 

 oblong-oval purple cones, their bracts being acute or cuspidate and 

 longer than the scales. Discovered by Humboldt and introduced 

 into the gardens of Europe by Hartweg in 1838, Abies religiosa 

 flourishes in sheltered positions in the extreme southern part of 

 Great Britain, where it has produced its cones, and on the shores 

 of the Italian lakes where no other Fir-tree excels it in lustre of 

 foliage or in the beauty of its brightly colored cones. The specific 

 name of the Mexican Fir was given to it in allusion to the use of 

 its branches in Mexico for the decoration of churches. 



^ Ahies SachalinensiSf Masters, Gard. Chron. n. ser. xii. 588, f. 



97 (1879); Jour. Linn. Soc. xviii. 517 (Conifers of Japan), — 



Veitch, Man. Conif. 100. — Mayr, Monog. Ahiet. Jap. 42, t. 3, f. 6. 



Ahies Veitchi, var. Sachalinensisj F. Schmidt, Mem. Acad. Sci. 



St. Petershourg, sdr. 7, xii. 175, t. 4, f. 13-17 {Fl. Sachalinensis) 



(1868). — Beissner, I. c. 461, f. 127. 



Ahies Sachalinensis is scattered among the deciduous-leaved trees 

 which clothe the low hills of central Yezo, and forms extensive for- 

 ests in the extreme northern part of the island and in Saghalin. It 

 is a tall slender pyramidal tree, with pale bark and long narrow 

 dark green leaves, oblong-cylindrical pale brown cones three or 

 four inches long, with exserted bracts, and white winter-buds, by 

 which it can always be distinguished from the other Japanese Fir- 

 trees. The wood is used for building and for packing-cases. A 

 curious form of this tree has been noticed by Professor Miyabe in 

 central Yezo with red bark, dark red wood, and red cone-bracts. 

 (See Sargent, Forest Fl. Jap. 83.) Ahies Sachalinensis is hardy 

 in eastern Massachusetts, where it grows more rapidly than any 

 other species of Fir-tree, but as it begins to open its buds early 

 in the spring it is usually destroyed in western Europe by late 

 frosts . 



s Ahies Sihirica, Ledebour, FL Alt. iv. 202 (1833); Icon. FL Ross. 

 V. 28, t. 500. — Link, Lhinma, xv. 527. — Trautvetter, Middendorff 

 Reise, i. pt. ii. 170 (PL Jen.). — Carriere, Lc. 225. — Trautvetter 

 & Meyer, Middendorff Reise, ii. pt. i. 86 (Fl. Ochot.). — Maxi- 

 mowicz, Mem. Sav. Etr. Acad. Sci. St. Petersbourgy ix, 260 (Fl. 

 Amur.). — Regel, Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Petershourg, sdr. 7, iv. No. 4, 

 136 (Tent. Fl. Ussur.). — Beketow, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxxvni. 

 pt. i. 162, t. 5. — Bertrand, Ann. Sci. Nat. sdr. 5, xx. 95. — Masters, 

 Jour. Linn. Soc. xviii. 619 (Conifers of Japan). — Herder, Bot, 

 Jahrb. xiv. 160 (Fl. Europ. Russlands). 



Pinus Picea, Pallas, Fl. Ross. i. 7 (in part) (not Du Roi) 

 (1784). 



Pinus Sihiricaj Turczaninow, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xi. 101 

 (Cat. PL Baical.) (1838). — Antoine, Conif. 64, t. 26, f. 1.— 

 Ledebour, Fl. Ross. iii. 669. — Christ, Verhand. Nat. Gesell. Ba- 

 sel, iii. 545 (Uehersicht der Europaischen Ahietineen). — Parlatore, 



