ABIES GRANDIS. 511 



below ; on the lower sterile branches pseudo-distichous, spreading in 

 double rows at nearly a right angle to the axis almost in a flat 

 horizontal plane; those in the lower row 1 "75 2 '25 inches long, those 

 in the upper one 0*5 1 inch long; on the upper fertile branches pointing 

 in various directions but mostly upwards at a small angle to the 

 axis and nearly all of equal length. Staminate flowers shortly stipitate, 

 cylindric, 0'5 inch long, light violet-pink and surrounded at the base by 

 small, involucral bracts in two three series. Cones sessile or sub- 

 sessile, slightly narrowed at the obtuse apex, -45 inches long and 

 1-5 2 inches in diameter; scales closely imbricated, crescent-shaped 

 passing into broadly fan-shaped, incurved along the exposed margin and 

 shortly clawed ; bracts small, variable in size and shape but always 

 shorter than the scale, sub-spathulate with an apiculus at the apex. 

 Seed-wings broadly wedge-shaped. 



Abies grandis, Lindley in Penny Cyclop. I. 30 (1833). Forbes, Pinet. Woburn, 

 123, t. 43 (1839). Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 296. McNab in Proceed. R. 

 Irish Acad. II. ser. 2, 678, fig. 4. Engelmami in Gard. Chron. IX. (1878), p. 300 

 XII. (1879), p. 684; and Brewer and Watson's Bot. Califor. II. 118. Hoopes. 

 Evergreens, 211. Masters in Gard. Chron. XV. (1881), p. 179 ; Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 XXII. 174, with figs.; and Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 192. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 

 476, with fig. 



A. Gordoniana. Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 298 (1857). 



Picea grandis, London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2347, with figs. Gordon, Pinet. 

 ed. II. 216. 



Pinns grandis, Douglas in Conip. Bot. Mag. II. 147 (1836). Endlicher, Synops. 

 Conif. 105. Hooker, W. Fl. Bor. Amer. II 1(53. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 427. 



Eng. Tall Silver Fir. Amer. White Fir of Oregon. Germ. Grosse-Weisstanue, 

 Grosse Kiistentanne. 



Abies grandis is a tree of the plains and valleys rather than of 

 the mountains ; it attains its greatest development in the rich 

 moist soil of the lowlands of western Washington and Oregon. On 

 the mountains it nowhere ascends above 4,000 feet, and where this 

 elevation is reached its dimensions are much reduced. It occurs 

 in Vancouver Island and British Columbia whence it spreads 

 southwards in the vicinity of the coast to Mendocino in north 

 California ; inland it spreads through Oregon and Washington as 

 far as the Bitter Root mountains of Idaho and the Rocky 

 Mountains of northern Montana its eastern limit. Its economic 

 value to the inhabitants of these States is considerable ; the wood 

 is light, soft and easily worked but not strong ; it is chiefly used 

 for indoor carpentry, packing cases, cooperage, etc. 



Abies grandis was discovered by David Douglas during his excursion 

 up the Columbia river in 1830, of which mention has been already 

 made under A. amabilis. He sent seeds to the Horticultural Society 

 of London, of which very few appear to have germinated, as London 

 mentions that there was but one plant, a foot high, in the Society's 

 garden at Chiswick in 1837, but others had been distributed among 

 the Fellows.* No more seeds of Abies grandis were received in this 

 country for nearly a quarter of a century. In 1851 William Lobb 



* Transactions of the Horticultural Society of London, Vol. II. ser. 3, p. 376, but I 

 have been unable to discover any of them, unless the tree at Dropmore is one. 



