THE SILVER FTRS. 145 



No. 2. PiCEA TiRACTEAT A, Loudon, the Leafy-bractcd Silver Fir. 

 Syn. Abies bracteata, Hooker. 

 „ Pinus bracteata, Don. 

 „ „ vcnusta, Douglas. 



Leaves, solitary, two-rowed, linear, tapering to both ends, 

 alternate, flat on the upper side, entire, and sharp-pointed, from 

 two to two and a half inches long, and rather more than one-tenth 

 of an inch wide, bright green above, ribbed with two silvery, 

 white lines below, crowded and scattered at the insertion on the 

 branches, but two-rowed and extended above. Branches, in 

 whorls, spreading, slender, lower ones drooping, lesser ones 

 bent downwards ; buds composed of large, loose, elliptic, pale- 

 yellow scales, destitute of resin, axillary, and scattered along 

 the branches, but mostly towards the points. Cones, ovate, 

 erect, on very short footstalks, four inches long, and two inches 

 wide, in great clusters on the upper side of the top adult 

 branches ; scales, kidney-shaped, concave and rounded on the 

 upper margin, and stipulate at the back; bracteas, wedge-shaped, 

 three-lobed, the middle one two inches long, recurved, parti- 

 cularly those towards the base, which are the longest, while those 

 towards the summit are nearly straight, much shorter, and but 

 little changed in appearance or colour from the ordinary leaves ; 

 the lateral lobes are very short, and extend very little beyond 

 the end of the scales. Seeds, wedge-shaped, soft, and angular, 

 with rather a short, but broad, membranaceous wing. 



Trunk very slender, but as straight as an arrow ; with the 

 upper third of the tree frequently only clothed with branches, 

 and giving it the appearance of an elongated pyramid or cone. 



A tall, slender tree, growing 120 feet high, but only two 

 or three feet in diameter, first discovered by Douglas, on the 

 mountains along the Columbia River, and afterwards by Dr. 

 Coulter and Hartweg, on the sea range of Santa Lucia, in 

 Upper California, at an elevation of from 2,500 to 3,000 feet 

 above the sea. 



It is quite hardy, but suffers very much in its young growth 

 from late spring frosts. 



