52 PINACEAE 



sprays; bark on young trees whitish or silvery, on old trunks dark red, very 

 deeply and roughly fissured, in section showing reddish brown areas set off 

 by a sharply defined purple mesh; leaves % to I 1 /** inches long, ridged above 

 and below so as to be equally 4-sided, although more or less compressed, not 

 contracted at base or scarcely so, acutish at apex, those on the under side of 

 the branches spreading right and left, in the top of the tree more thickened, 

 erect, incurved and hiding the upper side of the branch; staminate catkins 

 dark red, about 3 lines long; cones, when young, beautiful dull purple objects, 

 becoming brown when mature, 4 to 8 inches long, 2 1 / to 3 l /2 inches in diameter, 

 broadly oval in outline, the broad scales with upturned edges; bracts very 

 variable in form and length, sometimes concealed beneath the scales, sometimes 

 conspicuously exserted and reflexed, their terminal portion commonly trans- 

 versely oblong, or broad with a short spreading awl-like point or pointless; 

 seeds 7 lines long with a semi-flabelliform wing 8 lines long and 8 to 11 lines 

 broad; cotyledons 9 to 13. 



Mountain slopes and ridges: Sierra Nevada, 5,000 to 8,500 feet, from the 

 Greenhorn Mts. northward to Lassen Peak and Mt. Shasta; thence ranging 

 into southern Oregon, westward to Marble Mt., and southward along the 

 Yollo Bolly range as far as Mt. Hull and Snow Mt. Wood straight, fine- 

 grained, heavy and very durable. Large sticks from this tree are used as 

 shaft timbers in Sierra Nevada gold mines. The most beautiful tree in the 

 upper portion of the main timber belt of the Sierras. 



Eefs. ABIES MAGNIFICA Murray, Proc. R. Hort. Soe. vol. 3, p. 318, f. 25-33 (1863), type loe. 

 central Sierra Nevada; first 'discovered by Capt. J. C. Fremont. A. nobilis var. magnified 

 Kellogg, For. Trees Cal. p. 29 (1882) ; Masters, Jour. Linn. Soc. vol. 22, pp. 187, 189, figs. 

 20, 21 (1886). 



4. A. nobilis Lindl. NOBLE FIR. Forest tree 80 to 250 feet high, with slen- 

 der branchlets and roughly broken trunk bark; leaves on the lower branches 

 flat, sharply and deeply grooved above, on upper branches rounded above and 

 obscurely ridged below, erect, % to 1% inches long; cones oblong-cylindrical, 

 4 to 5 inches long, 2 to 2^ inches in diameter; scales surpassed and often 

 wholly concealed by the reflexed spatulate bracts which are rounded and 

 fimbriate and tipped with an awl-like point. 



Coast Kanges and Cascades of Washington and Oregon, ranging south to the 

 Siskiyou Mts. in southern Oregon and to Trinity Summit in California (W.L.J. 

 no. 2079). 



Eefs. ABIES NOBILIS Lindley, Penny Cycl. vol. 1, p. 30 (1833), type loc. Cascade Mts. just 

 south of Columbia River, Douglas. 



5. A. venusta Koch. SANTA LUCIA FIB. (Fig. 11.) Singular montane tree 

 30 to 75 or 100 feet high with a narrow crown abruptly tapering above into a 

 steeple-like top; trunk y 2 to 2% feet in diameter, vested in light reddish 

 brown bark, and bearing short slender declined or drooping branches nearly 

 or quite to the ground; leaves stiff, sharp-pointed, dark green and nearly 

 flat above, below with a white band on either side of the strong median 

 ridge, li/4 or mostly 1% to 2 1 / 4 inches long, 1 to l 1 /^ lines wide, mostly 2-ranked ; 

 staminate catkins yellowish, fading reddish, broadly cylindrical, % to 1^ 

 inches long; ovulate catkins broadly oblong in outline, yellowish green, 1 to 

 l 1 /^ inches long; cones elliptic-oblong, 2% to 4 inches long, 1^ to 2 inches 

 thick, borne on peduncles 1/2 inch long which arise from a rosette-like cluster 

 of broad thin scales of the winter bud; bracts wedge-shaped, truncate or 



