510 ABIES GRANDIS. 



the last twenty years the true A. Fraseri of Carolina has been 

 distributed from the Arnold Arboretum, Massachusetts, U.S.A., among 

 the amateurs of North America and Europe ; it has, however, proved 

 practically worthless for British arboriculture. The wood is coarse- 

 grained, not easily worked, and soon decays on exposure to the weather. 



JOHN ERASER (1750 1811) was a native of Inverness-shire. He came to London in 

 1770, and having obtained the assistance of Sir J. E. Smith, first President of the Liimean 

 Society, Mr. Aiton of the Royal Gardens at Kew, and other prominent botanists of that time, 

 he proceeded to North America to collect plants. He landed in Newfoundland in 1780 where 

 he remained for some time. In 1785 he went to the southern States with the view of 

 exploring the Alleghany mountains and neighbouring territory of which little was known 

 botanically. Here he became cognisant of the wealth of plants suitable for British horticiil- 

 ture with which the region abounds, and to the introduction of which he may be said to 

 have devoted the greater part of the remainder of his life. Between 1780 and 1795 he 

 crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic four times, disposing of his collections on each occasion 

 to London nurserymen and to amateurs who chose to purchase them. In 1795 he visited 

 Russia and secured the patronage of the Empress Catherine which was continued by her 

 successor the Emperor Paul, but it resulted in disastrous consequences to himself. In 1799 

 accompanied by his son John he again embarked for the southern States, and in the 

 following year proceeded to Cuba. The vessel was wrecked on a coral reef about eighty 

 miles from Havana, and after six days of suffering, he, with six of the crew, was picked 

 up by a Spanish boat and conveyed to Havana where he met the distinguished German 

 travellers Humboldt and Bonpland, who procured for him permission to explore the island. 

 Returning to America in 1802, Fraser embarked for England, but misfortune again attended 

 him, for after being at sea some time the ship sprang a leak, and passengers and crew 

 were compelled to labour at the pumps night and day till they reached the nearest land. 

 On arriving in England a still heavier trial awaited him in the intelligence which he received 

 of the death of his patron the Emperor Paul. He repaired, however, to St. Petersburg to 

 claim the recompense to which he deemed himself justly entitled, but after months of 

 disheartening delay his claim was finally rejected by the Emperor Alexander. In 1807 

 again accompanied by his son John, he undertook another long and perilous journey through 

 the wild forest region of the southern States, and returned to England in 1810. A short 

 time previous to his embarkation, while returning from the mountains of Charlestown, his 

 horse fell and he unfortunately broke several of his ribs, the distance from surgical aid 

 aggravating the consequences. For several months after reaching London he was confined 

 to his bed till death released him from his sufferings in April, 1811. Among the plants 

 introduced by him were Rhododendron catawbieme, .R. (Azalea) calendulaceum, Andromeda 

 ftoribunda, A. speciosa, A. Catesbcei, Phlox am&na, P. subulate, Sarracenia rubra, and 

 many others of far greater horticultural value than the Abies that commemorates his 

 name. 



Abies grandis. 



A lofty tree, the tallest in the genus, attaining a height of 

 250 300 feet in the valleys of western Oregon and Washington, 

 but much less on the mountain slopes at its highest vertical limit. 

 Trunk tapering and slender in proportion to height, 3 5 or more feet 

 in diameter near the ground,* covered with smooth brownish bark. 

 In Great Britain the bark of the oldest trees is fissured into thin 

 irregular plates exposing a reddish brown inner cortex. Branches 

 horizontal or depressed, with smooth striated brown bark. Branchlets 

 distichous and mostly opposite. Buds small, ovoid-conic, sub-acute, 

 about 0-25 inch in diameter, with light reddish brown perular scales 

 often covered with a film of translucent resin. Leaves persistent 

 five seven years, linear, obtuse or emarginate, dark lustrous green with 

 a median groove above, paler with two glaucous stomatiferous bands 



* A section of a trunk 317 years old in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington 

 is 5 feet in diameter inside the bark. 



