100 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CONIFER-^. 



Picea kuhinaria, Wenderoth, Pflanz. Bot, GarL Marb. 11 



(1831). 

 Picea pectinata, Loudon, Arh. Brit. iv. 2329, f. 2237-2239 



(1838). 

 AUes argentea, De Chambray, 7'raite Arh. Res. Conif. 17, 1. 1, 



f. 1, 2, t. 5, f. 1 (1845). 



Pinus AbieSy a pectinataj Christ, VerJiand. Nat. GeselL Basel, 



ill. 542 (JJebersicht der Europdischen Ahietineen) (1862). 



Abies Picea, which is the largest of the conifers of Europe, under 

 exceptionally favorable conditions attains the height of two hundred 

 feet, and forms a trunk eight feet in diameter. It is a tree with 

 elongated horizontal lower branches, which, on the Jura and the 

 Swiss Alps, occasionally develop lateral shoots that grow upward, 

 and have the appearance of young perfectly developed trees (see 

 Christ, Garden and Forest, ix. 273), and a pyramidal crown which 

 m old age sometimes becomes round-headed. The leaves are flat, 

 spreading in two ranks, dark green and lustrous on the upper sur- 

 face and silvery white on the lower, and the slender cylindrical 

 bluntly pointed cones are light green to deep purple and five or 

 six inches long, with slightly exserted bracts. 



Abies Picea is an inhabitant of the mountains of southern and 

 central Europe, forming forests on the mountains of Catalonia and 

 Aragon, and on the northern slopes of the eastern Pyrenees, In 

 Corsica it is the principal tree in the belt above that of Pinus 

 Laricio and below the forests of Beech. It grows also at high alti- 

 tudes in Sicily, on the Apennines, the Jura and the Vosges, and in 

 the Schwarzwald, in Saxony, Thurlngia, the Tyrol, and Dalmatia. 



The wood of Abies Picea is white, sometimes tinged with reddish 

 brown, with sapwood which is hardly distinguishable from the 

 heartwood ; it is moderately elastic, soft, and easily worked, but 

 not durable; it is used in the construction of buildings and boats, 

 for masts, in cabinet-making and wood-carving, and for fuel and 

 charcoal. The bark is employed for tanning leather. By punctur- 

 ing the resin vesicles on the trunk Strasburg turpentine is ob- 

 tained. Once highly esteemed in medicine, this substance was long 

 ago dropped from the pharmacoposias of Europe, and is now almost 

 forgotten. (See Belon, De Arboribus Coniferis, 28. ~ Dale, Phar- 

 macologia, 395. — Stephenson & Churchill, Med. Bot. ii. t. 74. — 

 Loudon, L c. — Fluckiger & Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 555. — • 

 Bentley & Trimen, Med. Bot. iv. 262, t. 262.) Strasburg turpen- 

 tine is still occasionally used in the preparation of paints and 

 varnish. 



Young plants of Abies Picea are able to survive for a long time 

 in the shade of other trees, and therefore this species has been 

 found especially valuable by French and German sylviculturists for 

 the natural reproduction of forests. In artificial planting, how- 

 ever, it usually proves more uncertain than the Spruce, although 

 the great forest of this tree at Vallambrosa, overhanging the Arno 

 and below the summits of the Apennines, has been perpetuated 

 for centuries entirely by planting. 



Abies Picea was introduced into England at the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century, and has since been a favorite with Eng- 

 lish planters, who have produced many noble specimens. (See 

 Strutt, Sylva Britannica, 31, t. 6. — Loudon, I c. 2332.) Abies 

 Picea was brought to the eastern United States early in the present 

 century, but it is not very hardy even in the middle states, and 

 is not usually kept alive here for more than a few years without 

 difficulty. 



A number of abnormal forms of Abies Picea are cultivated by 

 European lovers of curious trees. The most distinct of these are 

 the forms with erect and with pendulous branches, and one with 

 short branches covered by short crowded leaves. (For a descrip- 



tion of the garden forms of Abies Picea, see Carri^re, Traite Conif. 

 ed. 2, 280. — Veitch, Man. Conif. 104. — Beissner, Handb. Nadelh. 

 432.) 



15 Abies Pinsapo, Boissier, Bibl. Univ. Geneve, xiii. 167 (1838); 

 Ann. Sci. Nat. ser. 2, ix. 167; ElencJi. PI. Nov. Hisp. 84 ; Voy. 

 Espagne, ii. 584, 1. 167-169. — ■ Carrifere, Traite Conif. 227. — Will- 

 komm & Lange, Prodr. Fl. Hispan. i. 17. — K. Koch, Dendr. ii. 

 pt. ii. 226. — Bertrand, Ann. Sci, Nat. s4v. 5, xx. 95. — Laguna, Conv- 

 feras y Amentdceas Espanolas, 31; Fl. Forestal Espanola, pt. i. 35, 

 t. 2, 3. — Masters, Gard. Chron. n. ser. sxiv. 468, f . 99. — Colmeiro, 

 Enum. PI. Hispano-Lusiiana, iv. 708. — Beissner, I. c. 444, f. 121. 

 Pinus Pinsapo, Antoine, Conif. 65, t. 26, f. 2 (1842-47).— 



Endllcher, Syn. Conif. 109. — Christ, L c. 645. — Parlatore, De 



Candolle Prodr. xvi. pt. ii. 422 (excl. syn.) — W. K. M'Nab, 



Proc. R. Irish Acad. ser. 2, ii. 697, t. 48, f. 26. 



Picea Pinsapo, London, Encycl. Trees, 1041 (1842). — Gordon, 



Pinetum, 159. 



Abies Hispanica, De Chambray, /. c. 339 (1845). 



Abies Pinsapo is a tree seventy or eighty feet in height, with a 

 stout trunk usually clothed with branches to the ground, and dis- 

 tinguished by its stiff branchlets thickly set with short broad rigid 

 sharply pointed erect bright green leaves spreading from all sides, 

 and cylindrical gray-brown cones from four to six inches in length. 

 It grows on the mountains of central and southern Spain, and 

 forms great forests on the Sierra Nevada, at elevations of be- 

 tween four thousand and six thousand feet above the sea. It was 

 introduced into gardens in 1839 by Boissier, who first distinguished 

 the Pinsapo as a distinct species. In central and western Europe, 

 where it is one of the most generally cultivated and handsomest of 

 the Fir-trees, it has already grown to a large size, but in the 

 eastern United States it never really flourishes, although it is pos- 

 sible to keep it alive for many years in favorable situations even 

 as far north as eastern Massachusetts. (Sargent, Garden and For- 

 est, vi. 458.) 



1^ Abies Baborensis, Letourneux, Cat. Arb. et Arbust. d^Algerie 

 (1888). 



Abies Pinsapo, var. Baborensis, Cosson, Btdl. Soc. Bot. France, 



viii. 607 (1861); Annuaire Soc. Imp. d'Acclimatation, 1863,299 ; 



Rev. Hort. 1866, 144. —K. Koch, /. c. 227. 



Abies Numidica, Carrifere, Rev. Hort. 1866, 106, 203 ; Traite 



Conif, ed. 2, 305. — Veitch, I. c. 103. — Masters, ?. c. ser. 3, 



iii. 140, f. 23. — Trabut, Rev. Gen. Bot. i. 405, t. 17, 18. — 



Beissner, I. c. 447. — Koehne, Deutsche Dendr. 16. 

 ■ Pinus Pinsapo, Parlatore, I. c. (in part) (not Boissier) 



(1868). 

 Picea Numidica, Gordon, Pinetum, ed. 2, 220 (1875). 

 Pinus Baborensis, W. R. M'Nab, /. c. t. 48, f. 27 (1877). 

 The Algerian Fir, mingling with the Mt. Atlas Cedar, in- 

 habits the slopes of Mt. Babor and Mt. Tababor, in the Province 

 of Constantine, at elevations of from four to six thousand feet above 

 the level of the sea. It is a tree sixty or seventy feet in height, 

 with a slender trunk, spreading branches forming a compact pyr- 

 amidal head, crowded dark green flat pointed or emarginate leaves, 

 and cylindrical dull grayish brown cones from five to eight inches 

 in length, their bracts being shorter or longer than their scales. 

 Introduced into the gardens of central Europe in 1864, Abies Ba- 

 borensis has proved hardy in France and England, and one of the 

 most attractive members of the genus as a garden plant. 



" The Cascade Mountains in Oregon must, perhaps, be regarded 

 as the headquarters of the genus Abies, for on that part of the 

 range which is south of the Columbia River, and which is not over 

 one hundred and seventy miles long, are congregated six species, 



