98 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA, 



CONIFERS. 



De Candolle Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 425. — W. R, M'Nab, Proc. R. 

 Irish Acad. ser. 2, ii, 685, t. 47, f. 12. 



Picea Pichta, Loudon, Arh. Brit. iv. 2338 (1838). — Maximo- 

 wicz, Bull. Phys. Math. Acad, Sci. St. Petersbourg, xv. 436 

 (Bdume und Strducher des Amurlands). — Gordon, Pinetum, 



156. 

 Abies Pichta, Forbes, Pinetum Woburn. 113, t. 39 (1839). 



Pinus Pichta, Endlicher, Syn. Conif, 108 (1847). — Turczani- 



now, Fl. Baicalensi-Dahurica, ii. pt. i. 138. 

 Abies Sibirica, var, alba, Carri^re, Traite Conif. 225 (1855). 



Abies Sibirica, which is the only Fir-tree of northern Europe and 

 northwestern Asia, ranges from northern and eastern Russia to 

 Kamtschatka and Mongolia, and on the Altai Mountains is said to 

 form great pure forests at elevations of about four thousand feet 

 above the sea-level. It is a slender pyramidal tree, with pale bark, 

 flat dark green leaves, and small cylindrical cones. In the north- 

 eastern United States Abies Sibirica is very hardy and grows rap- 

 idly, but usually loses its dense habit before it is twenty feet high, 

 becoming ragged and unattractive in appearance. In western 

 Europe it can scarcely be kept alive for many years, as the young 

 shoots, which appear very early in the spring, are almost always 

 injured by frost. 



10 Abies Webbiana, Lindley, Penny Cycl. i. 30 (1833). — Forbes, 

 /, c. 117, t. 41. — Link, Linncea, xv. 532. — Lindley & Gordon, iTowr. 

 Hort. Soc. Lond. v. 211 (excl. syn. Abies bifida'). — Carri^re, I. c. 

 223. — Boissier, Fl. Orient, v. 703. — Masters, Gard. Chron. n. ser. 

 xxii. 467, f. 86; ser. 3, x. 395, f. 47. — ■ Hooker f. Gard. Chron. n. 

 ser. XXV. 788, f. 174, 175; Fl. Brit. Ind. v. 654. — Beissner, Handb. 

 Nadelh. 479, f. 134. 



Pinits Webbiana, Lambert, Pinus, ed. 2, i. 77, t. 44 (1828). — 



Antoine, Conif. 61, t. 24, f . 1. — Endlicher, I. c. 106. — Parla- 



tore, I. c. — W. R. M*Nab, I. c. 691, t. 48, f. 18. 



Pinus spectabilis, D. Don, Prodr. FL Nepal. 55 (1825). — Lam- 

 bert, I. c. ii. 3, t. 2. 

 Picea Webbiana, Loudon, I c. 2344, f . 2251-2253 (1838). — 



Gordon, I. c. 160. 

 Abies spectabilis, Spach, Hist. Veg. xi. 422 (1842). — K. Koch, 



Dendr. ii. pt. ii. 230. 



Abies Webbiana is a tree sometimes one hundred and fifty feet in 

 height, with a trunk from three to five and occasionally ten feet in 

 diameter, leaves very dark green and lustrous on the upper surface 

 and silvery white on the lower, and cylindrical or ovoid dark pur- 

 ple cones from four to six inches long. It is widely spread at high 

 elevations over the Himalayas from Afghanistan to Bhotan, some- 

 times, in cold damp glades facing the north, forming, either alone 

 or with the Birch, the highest forest belt; it is often associated, 

 also, with the Spruce, the White Pine and the Hemlock, and with 

 Birches, Maples, and Rhododendrons in great subalpine forests. 

 The wood of the Himalayan Fir-tree is soft, pale, and not durable 

 when exposed to the weather; it is used in mountain regions in the 

 construction of houses and for shingles, and from Sikkim it is sent 

 into Thibet. The bark is employed for the roofs of shepherds' 

 huts and the twigs and leaves for fodder; a violet dye has been 

 obtained from the cones (Gamble, Man. Indian Timbers, 408). 



Brandis distinguishes two varieties of Abies Webbiana which 

 other botanists have sometimes considered species. The first of 

 them is a Webbiana (Forest Fl. Brit. Ind. 528 [1874]), which he 

 describes as a small tree with shorter and less bifid leaves and usu- 

 ally shorter and thicker cones; this form grows on exposed rocky 

 ridges at higher elevations than his 



^ Pindrow, I c. (1874). —Beissner, I c. 481. 



Pinus Pindrow,J>. Don, Lambert Pinus, iii. t. (1837). — An- 



toine, I. c. 62, t. 24, f . 2. — Endlicher, I. c. 106. — Parlatore, I. c. — 

 W. R. M'Nab, I. c. 690, t. 47, f. 17. 



Picea Pindrow, Loudon, I. c. 2346, f. 2254, 2255 (1838).— 

 Gordon, I. c 157. 



Abies Pindrow, Spach, I. c. 423 (1842). — Royle, 7Z^. 350, t. 



86. ~ Carrifere, I. c. 221. — K. Koch, I. c. 229. — Bertrand, Ann. 



Sci. Nat. s^r. 5, xx. 95. — Masters, I. c. 691, f . 154. 



This is a larger tree found in sheltered places in good soil with 

 longer leaves and usually cylindrical cones. 



First cultivated in Europe in 1822, Abies Webbiana, although in 

 a few favorable positions in Great Britain it has grown to a size 

 sufficiently large to produce cones, has not on the whole proved 

 particularly valuable as an ornamental tree in Europe; in the 

 United States it is not hardy at the north, and southward is de- 

 stroyed by heat and drought. 



^^ Abies Nordmanmana, Spach, I. c. 418 (1842). — Carri^re, I. c. 

 203. — Tehihatcheff, Asie Mineure, 494. — K. Koch, I. c. 218. — 

 Boissier, I. c. — Masters, I. c. 142, f . 30. — Hooker, f . Bot. Mag. 

 cxiv. t. 6992. — Beissner, I. c. 434, f. 120. 



■ Pinus Nordmanniana, Steven, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xi. 45, t. 2 



4 



(1838); Ann. Sci. Nat. sdr. 2, xi. 56; Gard. Mag. ser. 2, v. 225, 

 f. 43. — Antoine, l. c. 74, t. 28, f. 1. —Endlicher, /. c. 97.— 

 Ledebour, FL Moss. iii. 670. — K. Koch, Linncea, xxii. 295. — 

 W. R. M'Nab, L c. 694, t. 48, f. 22. 



Picea Nordmanniana, Loudon, Encycl. Trees, 1042, f. 1900 

 (1842). — Gordon, L c. 150. 



Picea Withmanniana, Carri^re, Z. c. 260 (1855). — Trautvetter, 

 Act. Hort. Petrop. ix. 213 (Incrementa FL Ross.). 

 . Pinus A bies, Parlatore, Fl. Ital. iv. QQ (in part) (not Du Roi) 

 (1867) ; De Candolle Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 420 (in part)* 

 Abies Nordmunniana, which is the most eastern representative of 

 a group of species of which Abies Picea of central Europe is the 

 type, is a tree sometimes one hundred and fifty feet in height, with 



a trunk six feet in diameter, long crowded leaves dark green and 

 lustrous on the upper surface and silvery white on the lower, and 

 oblong-cylindrical or ellipsoidal dark orange-brown cones with con- 

 spicuously exserted bracts. It is an inhabitant of the mountains on 

 the southern and southeastern shores of the Black Sea, including the 

 western spurs of the Caucasus, and is common at elevations of two 

 thousand feet above the sea-level. Introduced in 1848 into the gar- 

 dens of western Europe, Abies Nordmanniana has proved the most 

 vigorous of all the eastern Fir-trees, thriving in soils and situations 

 where the others do not flourish, and one of the most useful exotic 

 conifers for the decoration of the parks and gardens of temperate 

 Europe. (See Hutchinson, Trans. Agric. and Highland Soc. ser. 4, 

 x. 141. — Masters, I. c. 147, f. 30. — Webster, Trans. Scottish Ar- 

 boricultural Soc. xi. 61. — Dunn, Jour. R. Hort. Soc. xiv. 86.) The 

 Nordmann Fir is very hardy in the eastern United States as far 

 north, at least, as eastern Massachusetts, but although dense in 

 habit and very handsome while young, it is apt to become thin and 

 shabby here at a comparatively early age. 



12 Abies Cilicica, Carri^re, L c. 229 (1855); FL des Serres, xi. 

 67, t. — Tchihatcheff, L c. 494. — K. Koch, Dendr. li. pt. ii. 221. — 

 Bertrand, L c. — Boissier, L c. — Beissner, L c. 448, f . 122. 



Pinus Cilicica, Kotschy, Oestr. Bot. WochenbL iii. 409 (1853). — 



Parlatore, De Candolle Prodr. I. c. 422. — W. R. M'Nab, I. c. 



694, t. 48, f . 23. 



Abies selinusia, Carrifere, Fl, des Serres, xi. 69 (1856). 

 Picea Cilicica, Gordon, L c. Suppl. 50 (1862). 



Abies Cilicica, which is described as a tree from forty-five to 

 sixty feet in height, forms with the Cedar of Lebanon great forests 

 on the Cilician Taurus at elevations of from four thousand five 



