56 CONIFERS AND TAXADS OF JAPAN 



bark is dark gray, rough and scaly and in the forests the trunk is clean of branches 

 for from 10 to 18 m. from the ground. On young trees the shoots are clothed with a 

 short, erect, dark gray pubescence or this pubescence is confined to the shallow fur- 

 rows between the pulvini; the short shoots and the fruiting branchlets are glabrous or 

 nearly so. The winter-buds are large, ovoid to conical, shining gray-brown, with little 

 or no resin. The leaves are dark shining green, and on young trees and adventitious 

 branches are spreading, bifid and pungent, and on older branches rounded and emar- 

 ginate. On the fruiting branches the leaves are upturned, short, obtuse and often 

 quite entire. With the difference in age of the branchlets and character of the leaf 

 there are correlated differences in the position and number of the resin-ducts. In 

 its juvenile condition with bifid leaves the resin-ducts are two in number, sub- 

 epidermal and lateral ; in its adolescent stage, where the leaves are merely spread- 

 ing and emarginate, the resin-ducts are two in number and are median; on adult, 

 fruiting branches the leaves have each four resin-ducts, two larger median and two 

 smaller sub-epidermal and lateral. In all the stages stereom tissue is present scat- 

 tered through the mesophyll and its presence distinguishes A. firma from all the 

 other Japanese Firs. In its adolescent stage the position of the resin-ducts is 

 the same as in A. homolepis S. & Z., but this species is without stereom tissue 

 scattered through the mesophyll. The variations in the character of the leaf in 

 young and old trees caused Siebold & Zuccarini to distinguish their A. firma and 

 A. bifida, and the differences in the position of the resin-ducts led to the misunder- 

 standing of A. firma by Bertrand and by McNab and to their confusing it in part 

 with the totally distinct A. homolepis S. & Z. Masters was the first to doubt that 

 the position of resin-ducts was an all-important taxonomic character in the genus 

 Abies. The conclusions I have reached have been verified from material taken from 

 a living tree growing in this Arboretum, supplemented by similar microscopic sec- 

 tions made from material of all ages collected in Japan by myself and others. The 

 cone is green and cylindrical, changes to gray or grayish brown when ripe and is 

 from 12 to 15 cm. long; the apical part of the bract is lance-shaped and is always 

 exserted, erect and pungent. The wood is white, coarse-grained, soft and of little 

 value except for pulp and for making packing cases. Most of the boxes in which 

 Japanese Lily bulbs are packed for export are made of this wood. 



As stated under Pinus Thunbergii Pari, and under Picea polita Carr., this Fir is 

 probably the tree seen by Thunberg near Tokyo and by him referred to Linnaeus' 

 Pinus Abies, but as no specimens of Thunberg's plant exist this must ever remain 

 a matter of doubt. It must have been common in Tokyo gardens and temple 

 grounds in Thunberg's time as it is now, and it is a reasonable assumption that he 

 saw it even if he did not recognize its botanical character. Von Siebold was the first 

 to make us properly acquainted with this Fir; it was introduced into England in 

 1861 by John Gould Veitch, and into America by Dr. George R. Hall in 1862. On 

 the Hall estate there is a fine specimen about 26 m. tall with a trunk 2.25 m. in 

 girth, but in eastern Massachusetts the climate is too severe, and though it just 

 manages to exist and to cone annually in this Arboretum, the species is not really 

 hardy and has no ornamental value here. 



