ABIES CONCOLOIl. 505 



Some time afterwards Mr. Ban-on of Borrowash distributed another 

 batch of seedlings under the name of A. Parsomiana ; and lastly the 

 Colorado form found its way into European gardens under the iiaiiH-s 

 of A. concolor and A. concolor violacea. With respect to the so-called 

 variety violacea the following extract from the American "Garden and 

 Forest " * should finally dispose of it : " In the forests of Colorado 

 green cones and purple cones are produced on trees standing side by 

 side and indistinguishable except in this one particular. It is not 

 known even if the same tree produces permanently the same coloured 

 cones, or whether they are not in some years green and in others 

 purple." 



For British parks and pleasure grounds A hies concolor is one of 

 the handsomest and most valuable of Silver Firs; in outline it is 

 almost strictly conical, the sky-line scarcely broken by projecting 

 branches; the branches with their appendages spread horizontally in 

 frond-like, almost tabuliform tiers one above the other, gradually 

 diminishing in length from the base to the summit. It is perfectly 

 hardy, the severest winters have not been known to affect it; but 

 to secure good specimens a space with a radius not less than twenty to 

 twenty-five feet should be allowed for it.t As an ornamental tree it is 

 scarcely less valuable in the more trying climate of the New 

 England and Middle States of North America where it is almost 

 the only West American Fir that can be satisfactorily cultivated. The 

 wood is very light, soft, and coarse-grained, neither strong nor durable. 

 It is only occasionally used in the western States where other 

 timber is scarce. 



The nearest affinity of Abies concolor is A. grandis, so near indeed 

 that intermediate forms have been observed that may with equal right 

 be referred to either; among such is one which grows on the mountains 

 of southern Oregon which is probably that introduced by Jeffrey. In 

 Great Britain the two are for the most part easily distinguishable ; the 

 growth of Abies grandis is generally more rapid, its branches longer 

 and more slender, and its leaves shorter, more decidedly pectinate in 

 arrangement on the sterile branches and darker in colour. From a 

 scientific standpoint these characteristics may be considered insufficient to 

 establish a specific distinction between the two, especially as scarcely any 

 other differences between them can be detected; the one, A. concolor, is 

 an inhabitant of the mountains, and the other, A. grandis, of the plains. J 



* Vol. IV. (1891), p. 28. 



t In his great work "The Silva of North America," Professor Sargent states that of the 

 Fir trees of North America Abies concolor best endures heat and dryness. and is able to 

 grow on arid mountain slopes where few other trees can maintain a foothold. This is 

 eminently suggestive of a more extended use of it in the drier parts of Great Britain 

 especially of the Rocky Mountains form which thrives so well in the north-east Atlantic 

 States. 



J Other pairs of Abies of which the affinity is so close that the specific rank of the 

 second member stands on debatable ground are A. nobilis and A. magnifies > A. balsauiea 

 and A. Fraseri, A. pectinata and A. wphalonica, A. Webbiana and A. Pindrow, A. 

 Veitchii and A. sachalanensis. If the specific rank of the second member of the pairs here 

 enumerated is made to depend on the characters afforded by a single organ there is ample 

 room for doubt, but if the trees are looked at from every possible point of view, the rank 

 must be conceded. 



