i6 CONIFEROUS TREES 



and perfect hardihood, it may well rank with the 

 choicest of ornamental conifers. 



A. MAGNIFICA, Murray. Stately Silver Fir. 

 Red Fir. (Synonyms : A. campylocarpa, Murray ; 

 Picea magnifica, Gordon.) North California. 

 1851. — ^Though rather stiff of growth, yet when 

 seen under the most favourable conditions, this 

 is truly a beautiful and magnificent tree. The 

 branches are horizontally arranged, with dense 

 foliage, crowded more above than below, each 

 leaf being about if inches long, glaucous olive- 

 green above, and marked with two silvery lines 

 on the under side. The cones are cylindrical, 5 

 to 7 inches long, by from 2 to 3 inches in dia- 

 meter, the scale edges incurved, and the bracts 

 included, but protruding in the var. xanthocarpa, 

 Lemmon, and terminating in a tail-hke appendage. 

 In its younger stages, the whole tree wears a 

 whitish silvery appearance, as if coated with 

 hoar frost ; but this beautiful colouring is most 

 noticeable when the specimens are growing under 

 unusually favourable conditions. As an orna- 

 mental tree, the present species is of great value, 

 while the growth is rapid, one specimen of which 

 I kept a record having attained to the height of 

 25 feet in a little over twelve years. It thrives 

 vigorously in reclaimed peat-bog at Churchhill, 

 in the north of Ireland, where in this country the 

 first cones were produced, but it also does well in 

 rich loam. 



A. Mariesii, Masters. Mountains of Japan. 

 1878. — This is likely to turn out a useful conifer 

 for ornamental planting. It is remarkable in 

 that the fohage resembles some of the Tsugas, 



