gS ABIES, OR SILVER FIRS 



object-lesson in their difference of growth was seen 

 and commented upon by the judges of plantations 

 referred to above, in a large wood of about sixteen 

 acres (Plassey Plantation), planted out with pure 

 Douglas by Lord Powis in 1906-7, at his Shropshire 

 home at Walcot. They had been planted simul- 

 taneously but in distinct groups. The Oregon had 

 grown to be half as high again as their Colorado 

 confreres, which occupied about a third of the space 

 of the ground. 



The tree has been so universally planted that it 

 has become a familiar sight of everyday walks. At 

 the same time it reads about as complicated a question 

 in the way of a botanical puzzle as any. In some 

 respects it takes after the Spruces (Piceas), in other 

 respects after the Silver Firs (Abies). On points 

 added the Silver Firs get most marks, but insufficient 

 to admit it unreservedly to their ranks. Veitch called 

 it Abietia ; Elwes and Henry, and also Bean, cling 

 to Pseudo-Tsuga nomenclature. 



The cones plentifully strewn around its trunk are 

 pendulous, as are the cones of the Piceas, but the 

 exserted bracts are more after the manner of some of 

 the Abies. The bright-red flowers (male) about 

 i inch long, surrounded by involucral bracts and 

 growing on the under-side of the branchlet of the 

 preceding year, present a very pretty spring picture. 

 The pistillate or female flowers, mostly terminal, are 

 composed of imbricated scales, with the three-lobed 

 bracts, shaped like a Neptune's trident, longer than 

 their scales, and which appear afterwards on the 

 full-grown cone, give it an unmistakable appearance. 

 The leaves, it will be seen, on looking at them closer, 

 are placed on rather obscure and very slightly raised 

 pulvini. When pulled off they make no such per- 

 ceptible tear as the more prominently raised Common 

 Spruce, neither do they leave the clean-cut circular 



