90 A HANDBOOK OF CONIFERS 



Abies bracteata, Hooker and Arnott. (Fig. 13.) 

 Santa Lucia Fir. 



Abies venusta, C. Koch ; Picea bracteata, Loudon ; Pinus bracteata, 

 D. Don ; Pinus venusta, Douglas. Bristle-cone Fir ; Fringed Spruce ; 

 Silver Fir. 



A handsome tree, attaining in California a height of 100-150 

 ft. with a trunk 9 ft. in girth. Bark light reddish-brown, smooth, 

 becoming slightly fissured in old trees. Branches short, closely 

 set, the lowest ones often sweeping the ground and forming a 

 tree of pyramidal outline, abruptly tapering above into a narrow 

 spire. Young shoots greenish, without hairs. Buds unlike those 

 of any other fir ; spindle-shaped, f in. long, made up of thin, 

 light -brown, non-resinous scales. Leaves spreading horizontally 

 into two opposite sets, those on the upper side of the shoot being 

 slightly shorter and pointing forwards, often 2 in. long, flattened, 

 rigid, with long, spine-like, horny points, abruptly tapering at the 

 base, upper surface dark green, slightly concave in the lower 

 half, flat near the apex ; lower surface with two white lines of 

 stomata. Cones 3-4 in. long, l|-2 in. broad, remarkable for the 

 long protruding spines of the scale bracts, which are from 1-2 in. 

 long and are generally tij^ped with globules of resin. Seeds dark 

 reddish-brown, | in. long, with similar-coloured wings about | in. 

 long. 



This singular fir is one of the most beautiful of the genus, and 

 at the same time one of the rarest. It occurs wild only in the 

 Santa Lucia Mountains, Monterey County, California, where it 

 grows in the moist bottoms of canons and on dry rocky summits 

 at about 3,000 ft. elevation. 



A. bracteata appears to have been first found by Coulter in 

 1831. The locality was afterwards visited by Douglas, Hartweg, 

 Lobb, and other botanical explorers, who procured seeds for 

 European gardens. It was introduced to cultivation by Lobb 

 when collecting for Messrs. Veitch in 1853. 



Wood not known in Britain. Hough ^ describes it as rather 

 light and hard, coarse-grained with very fine medullary rays, 

 colour pale yellowish-brown with little distinction between heart- 

 wood and sapwood. Even in America it is not used much owing 

 to the difficulty of extraction, there being other useful timbers 

 in more accessible places. 



The Santa Lucia Fir should be included in aU collections in 

 the milder parts of the country. In a state of nature it is found 

 both on dry ridges and also in moist valleys. In the British Isles 

 the best results may be looked for in places where both soil and 

 atmospheric conditions are on the moist side. Soil, however, 

 must not be waterlogged. 



Jepson, Silva of California, 124 (1910) ; Bot. Mag. t. 4740 (1S53). 

 ^ American Woods, x., 50. 



