126 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CONIFERiE. 



sixteenth to one twelfth of an inch in width, often broadest above the middle, erect by a twist at their 

 base and very crowded, those on the upper side of the branch being much shorter than those on the 

 lower and usually parallel with and closely appressed against it; on fertile branchlets they are nearly 

 erect, acute or acuminate, with callous tips, occasionally stomatiferous on the upper surface near the 

 apex and from one half to three quarters of an inch in length ; on vigorous leading shoots they are 

 acute, with long rigid points, closely appressed or recurved near the middle, about three quarters of an 

 inch long and nearly one eighth of an inch wide. The staminate flowers are oblong-cylindrical and 

 from one half to three quarters of an inch in length, with strawberry-red anthers, and at maturity hang 

 on slender pedicels from an eighth to nearly a quarter of an inch long. The pistillate flowers are oblong- 

 cylindrical, from three quarters of an inch to an inch in length and about a third of an inch thick, 

 with broad rounded purple scales and rhombic dark purple lustrous bracts erose above the middle and 

 gradually contracted into broad points. The cones are oblong, slightly narrowed to the rounded and 

 often retuse apex, deep rich purple, puberulous, from three and a half to nearly six inches in length 



t. 



and from two to two and a half inches in diameter, with scales from an inch to an inch and an eighth 

 wide, nearly as long as they are broad, gradually narrowed from the rounded apex, and rather more 

 than twice as long as their reddish rhombic or oblong-obovate bracts terminating in long slender tips. 

 The seeds are light yellow-brown and half an inch long, with obliquely cuneate pale brown lustrous 

 wings which are three quarters of an inch in length and somewhat less in breadth.* 



Ahies amabilis inhabits both slopes of the Cascade Mountains,^ the coast ranges of Oregon ^ and 

 Washington, and the mountains of southern British Columbia from Vancouver Island * to the valley 

 of the lower Fraser River.^ On the Cascade Mountains it extends from elevations of three thousand 

 up to about six thousand feet or nearly to the timber-line, mingling below with Tsiiga heterophylla, 

 Plcea Engelmanniy Ahies nobilisy and Abies grandis^ and above with Pinus albicaulis^ Tsuga 

 Mertensiana, and Abies lasiocarpa^ and at high altitudes it often grows alone on the margins of 

 alpine meadows singly or in small isolated groves. On the Olympic Mountains of northwestern 

 Washington, where it probably attains its greatest size, Abies amabilis is the most common Fir-tree, 

 occupying well-drained slopes and benches and less commonly the banks of streams at elevations of 

 from twelve hundred feet up to the timber-line, which is here about four thousand five hundred 

 teet above the sea, being most abundant and, with the Hemlock, forming a large part of the forest 

 between elevations of three and four thousand feet. On the mainland of British Columbia, associated 

 with Tsuga heterophyllay Tsuga Mertensiana, Pinus alhicaulis, and Pimcs monticola, it is common 

 above the forests of Pseudotsuga at elevations of from four to five thousand five hundred feet above 



the sea. 



The wood of Abies amabilis is light, hard, not strong, and close-grained; it is pale brown, with 



1 On a ridge of the Olympic Mountains separating the waters of 

 the Solduc from those of the Quillyhute, I found, on August 19, 

 1896, at an elevation of four thousand five hundred feet above the 

 sea, an Abies from sixty to eighty feet in height, growing with 

 Ahies lasiocarpa and Ahies amabilis, with the slender spire-like 

 head and the foliage of the former and the cones of the latter. It 

 was, perhaps, a natural hybrid between these species. 



^ A Vies amahilis ranges nearly to the southern end of the Cas- 

 cade Mountains of Oregon, the most southern tree seen by Dr. 

 Coville, in 1897, being "on the eastern slope of Old Bailey Moun- 

 tain, which lies on the west side of Diamond Lake about twenty 

 miles north of Crater Lake. Proceeding northward from this point, 

 we did not see the tree again until we reached the extreme southern 

 head-waters of the Willamette River, about twelve miles north of 

 Diamond Lake. Here on the northern slope of the Calapooia Moun- 

 tains, close to their junction with the crest of the Cascades, the tree 

 grew in great abundance on northern slopes." (Coville, in litt.) 



3 The most southern point at which Ahies amahilis has been seen 

 by Mr. A. J. Johnson of Astoria on the coast ranges is on Saddle 



+ 



Mountain, twenty-five miles south of the mouth of the Columbia 



Kiver. 



^ In 1887 Ahies amahilis was found on Vancouver Island by Mr. 

 John Maeoun, on the summits of Mounts Monk, Benson, and Arrow- 

 smith, where it grows with Tsuga Mertensiana. (See Maeoun, Cat. 

 Can. PL iv. 336.) 



, 5 In July, 1880, Ahies amahilis was first found in British Colum- 

 bia by Engelmann, Parry and Sargent, on the high mountains 

 south of Yale on the lower Fraser River, 



The northern range of Ahies amahilis is still to be determined. 

 It grows so abundantly to a large size at high elevations on the 

 mountains rising above the lower Fraser River valley that it may 

 be supposed to extend much farther north along the coast ranges 

 of British Columbia. 



