138 



SILVA OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CONIFER-^. 



cells at the four angles ; on young plants and the lower branches of older ones they arc oblanceolate 

 somewhat flattened, rounded or bluntly pointed at the apex, from three quarters of an inch to an inch 

 and one half long and one sixteenth of an inch wide, those on the lower side of the branch spreading 

 in two nearly horizontal ranks by the twist at their base, while those on the upper side of the branch 

 which are curved from below the middle, are often almost erect or bent forward at various ano-les to the 

 branch ; on upper and especially on fertile branches the leaves are much thickened, with more prominent 

 midribs, acute, with short callous tips, from one third of an inch in length on the upper side of the 

 branch to an inch and a quarter on the lower side, crowded, erect and strongly incurved, completely 

 hiding the upper side of the branch ; and on leading shoots the leaves are about three quarters of an 

 inch long, arcuate, and acuminate, with their long rigid callous spinescent tips pressed against the stem, 

 The staminate flowers are oblong-cylindrical, from one half to three quarters of an inch long and about 

 a quarter of an inch thick, with dark reddish purple anthers. The pistillate flowers are oblong, an inch 

 and a half long and nearly an inch thick, with rounded scales much shorter than their oblong pale green 

 bracts which terminate in elongated slender tips more or less tinged with red. The cones are oblong- 

 cylindrical, slightly narrowed to the rounded truncate or retuse apex, dark purplish brown,* puberulous, 

 from six to nine inches long and from two and a half to three and a half inches in diameter, with scales 

 often an inch and a half wide and usually about two thirds as wide as they are long, gradually narrowed 

 to the cordate base, somewhat longer or often only two thirds as long as their bracts, which are oblong- 

 spatulate, acute or acuminate, with slender tips, slightly serrate above the middle and often abruptly 

 contracted and then enlarged toward the base. The seeds are dark reddish brown, three quarters of 

 an inch long and about as wide as their lustrous rose-colored obovate cuneate wings, which are nearly 

 truncate and often three quarters of an inch wide at the apex.^ 



Abies magmfica is distributed southward from southern Oregon,^ finding its most northerly home 

 on the Cascade Mountains, where it is common at elevations of between five and seven thousand 



^ Mr. J. G. Lemmon has found in the neighborhood of Meadow- 

 Lake, Sierra County, California, smaU and evidently stunted trees 

 of Abies magnificat with cones averaging four or five inches in 

 length, which he describes as " of a yellowish color until maturity " 

 (Abies magnificaj var. xantJiocarpa, Lemmon, Rep. California State 

 Board Forestry, iil. 145, t. 14 [Cone- Bearers of California'] [1890] ; 

 West- American Cone-Bearers, 63 ; Bull. Sierra Club, ii. 166 \C(mi- 

 fers of the Pacific Sloped). 



^ On the Cascade Mountains of Oregon, on Mt. Shasta and on 

 the cross and coast ranges of northern California, the bracts of tlie 

 cone-scales of Abies magnifica are full and rounded or obtusely 

 pointed and not acute at the apex, and are nearly as long or usually 

 longer than their scales, the exserted bracts becoming bright golden 

 brown at maturity In their exposed parts and loosely refiexed, 

 leaving a considerable part of the scales of the cone uncovered. 

 This is : — 



Abies magnifica, var. Shastensis, Lemmon, Rep. California State 

 Board Forestry, ill. 145 {Cone-Bearers of California) (1890) ; West- 

 American Cone-Bearers, 62, t. 11. 



f Abies nobilis rohusta, Carri^re, Traite Conif ed. 2, 269 (1867). — 



Masters, Gard. Chron. n. ser. xxiv. 652, f. 147 ; Jour, Linn. Soe. 



xxii. 192, t. 5. 



Abies nobilis, var. glauca, Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. xxii. 189, f. 

 18 (1887). 



Abies Shastensis, Lemmon, Garden and Forest, x, 184 (1897) ; 

 Bull Sierra Club, ii. 165 (Conifers of the Pacific Slope). — Co- 

 viUe, Garden and Forest, x. 516. 



orests or mingled with Tsuga Mertensiana at its 



under this name had not fruited, and it Is impossible to decide 

 from his description whether it was tbe form with included or 

 exserted bracts, and his varietal name, which is much older than 



m 



Lemmon's Shastensis, cannot therefore be safely adopted. 



At the lowest elevations on Mt. Shasta, where this tree is found, 

 the cones are of the normal size and shape of the species, and the 

 bracts, although full and rounded at the apex, are not exserted or 

 protrude but slightly beyond the scales ; at higher elevations the 

 cones are often oval in form and not more than four inches long and 

 two and a half inches In diameter, with comparatively longer and 

 much exserted bracts. On the southern Sierra Nevada at very high 

 elevations the bracts of the cones of Individual trees of Abies mag- 

 nifica are identical in their shape with those of the north and are 

 much exserted, but in all the central part of the range occupied 



r 



by this tree its cone-bracts are acute and included ; and, except in 

 the shape and length of the cone-bracts and in the oval form of the 

 smaller cones produced on trees growing at high altitudes, I can 

 hnd no characters to distinguish from the Fir of the central Sierra 

 Nevada the var. Shastensis, whicli is the only form from Mt. Shasta 

 northward. In habit, bark, and foliage the two forms seem iden- 

 tical, nor have I seen trees with cone-bracts which appeared inter- 

 mediate in form between those of the species and its variety. 



2 See Coville, I. c. 



The most northern point wliere Abies magnifica, var. Shastensis, 

 was seen by Dr. Coville In 1897 was on the mountains east of Odell 

 Lake and south of Davis Lake, at a point many miles south of the 

 most southern station at which Abies nobilis has been observed 



The plant figured by Dr. Masters as Abies nobilis robusta is evi- (Coville, /. c). 

 dently of this form, but the plant previously described by Carri&re 



