THE SILVER FIRS. 151 



This beautiful tree is common on the Crimean Mountains and 

 those east of the Black Sea. Professor Nordmann, of Odessa, 

 discovered it first on the summit of the Adshar Mountains, 

 towards the sources of the Kur, at an elevation of 6,000 feet, 

 and M. Wittmann observed it on the southern declivity of the 

 mountains between Cartalin and Achalzich, as far up as the 

 Alpine regions, growing amongst a forest of Abies Orientalis, 

 and nearly 100 feet high. The timber is good, and harder than 

 that of the celebrated Oriental Spruce. 

 This species is quite hardy, and begins to grow late in the spring. 



No. 8. PiCEA PECTiNATA, Loudou, the Common Silver Fir. 

 Syn. Abies taxifolia, Desfont. 

 „ „ vulgaris, Poiret. 

 „ „ Picea, Lindley. 

 „ „ argentea, De Chamb. 

 „ „ alba. Miller. 

 „ „ pectinata, De Candole. 

 „ Picea taxifolia, Hort. 

 „ Pinus Picea, Willd., not Tournefort. 

 „ „ Abies, Duroi. 

 „ „ pectinata, Lamarck. 



Leaves, solitary, flat, obtuse, two-rowed, and with their points 

 turned up ; from three quarters to an inch long, stiff, and of a 

 shining dark green above and with two lines of a silvery white on 

 each side of the mid-rib beneath. Cones, from six to seven inches 

 long, and from one and a half to two inches broad, cylin- 

 drical, erect, and axillary, green when young, afterwards reddish, 

 and when ripe of a brown colour. Scales, one inch and a quarter 

 long and the same in breadth, rounded, and thin at the margins, 

 with a long bract fixed on the back of each, and extending 

 beyond the scale, and terminating in a sharp flat point. Seeds, 

 soft, and full of turpentine, angular, enveloped, and surmounted 

 with a membranaceous wing, broader above than below. Seed- 

 leaves, five in number. 



A lofty tree, growing from eighty to one hundred and fifty 

 feet high, with an erect stem, regularly furnished with whorls 



