94 ABIES, OR SILVER FIRS 



customs that entitles them to enter the ranks of 

 other groups. 



The Lasiocarpa was probably discovered during 

 the north-west expedition by Lewis and Clark, 1805, 

 but was first collected by Douglas in 1832. It has 

 been variously called Balsam or Mountain Balsam, 

 or Alpine Fir, and familiarly addressed by the less 

 learned and Latinised of the gardener fraternity as 

 Lazy Old Carp, and always seems to be more or 

 less a perplexity even to those more than ordinarily 

 acquainted with the rarities of Pinetums. That 

 this uncertainty exists can only be due to the fact 

 that many trees wrongly have left the nurseries under 

 the name of Lasiocarpa or Subalpina. For the 

 most part they have turned out to be Concolor or 

 Lowiana. From a branch that I have before me, 

 sent by the Forest Service of the United States, which 

 has voyaged from Colorado to County Radnor, the 

 very pallor of its grey-green leaves looks of a different 

 hue from any other Conifer that I have seen. Possibly 

 they may have faded from their pristine glory of blue- 

 green with a silvery tinge, attributed to them by 

 American dendrologists. The apices of the leaves of 

 these are all rounded, sometimes we are told that on 

 young shoots they are acute. Those on top side of 

 branch point upward, and those below are disposed 

 to curve in sympathy to jom them. The branches 

 were corky, fissured, pubescent, and of a light straw 

 colour. Where the leaf had left its appointed 

 place, there remained an oval-shaped light-red scar. 

 This in itself, if there were no other, is a guide to its 

 identity safe and sure. The characteristic swelling 

 of the nodes is very apparent. 



I write of it as it lies before me and as I have found 

 it. The cones that accompanied the branches were 

 of variable size. Some in clusters of three and 



