88 A HANDBOOK OF CONIFERS 



Abies brachyphylla, Maximowicz. (Fig. 12.) 

 NiKKO Fir. 



Abies iimbilicata, Hort. ; Picea brachyphylla, Gordon ; P. piimosa, 

 Hort. ; Pinus brachyi^hylla, Parlatore. 



A tree usually 80-90 but occasionally 100 ft. or more high 

 and up to 16 ft. in girth in its native country. Bark rough and 

 scaly like that of a spruce. Young shoots light brown or buff- 

 coloured, deeply grooved with prominent ridges, without down. 

 Winter buds conic or ovoid-conic, blunt, resinous. Leaves on 

 the lower side of the shoot horizontal and spreading at right- 

 angles to the shoot, those on the upper side directed outwards and 

 upwards, with a V-shaped depression between them and gradually 

 becoming shorter ; flattened, up to about 1 in. long and iV-r o 

 in. Tvide, rigid, dark shining green and grooved above, with a 

 blunt or pointed, horny, shghtly notched tip, lower surface with 

 two conspicuous white bands of stomata separated by a green 

 ridge ; resin canals median. Cones cylindrical, 4 in. long by 

 1|^ in. in diameter, purple at first but becoming brown when 

 mature ; scales very thin, fan-shaped, 1-| in. long by f in. wide, 

 bracts concealed by the scales, finely toothed and tipped by a 

 minute point. Seed-wing f in. long. 



Var. Tomomi, Rehder. 



A. Tomomi, Bollink and Atkins. 



A slender, more sparingly branched tree than the type with 

 shorter leaves 0-8-r5 cm., rarely 2 cm. long. Cultivated at the 

 Arnold Arboretum and in the New York Botanic Garden. 



Var. umbellata, Wilson. 

 Young shoots, buds, and foUage similar to those of typical 

 A. hrachypTiylla. The cones, according to Mayr, are greenish- 

 yellow, the flattened apex \^dth a raised centre. Bracts at the 

 base of the cone protruding. 



A. brachyphylla is the common fir of the mountains of Central 

 Japan at 2,500-5,000 ft. elevation. A. homolepis, Siebold and 

 Zuccarini,! which is said to differ from A. brachyphylla in the 

 shoots and leaf arrangement, is apparently only a juvenile form 

 of that species. One sometimes meets with plants having 

 longer and more acuminate leaves, entire at the tips and with 

 buds only shghtly resinous. 



The timber is not known in European markets and has little 

 value in Japan, as the trees grow in such inaccessible places 

 that the cost of extraction is prohibitive. 



As an ornamental tree in Britain it has much to commend 



^Fl. Jap. n, 17, t. 108 (1870); Bot. Mag. t. 7114 (1890). 



