516 ABIES MAGNIFICA. 



length of the scale, abruptly contracted at the apex into a long 

 slender tip. Seed wings nearly half as large as the scale. Sargent, 

 Silva of North America, XII. 113, t. 611. 



Abies lasiocarpa, Nuttall, Sylva III. 138 (1849). McNab in Proceed. R. Irish 

 Acad. II. ser. 2, 682, fig. 7. Masters in Gard. Chron. V. ser. 3 (1889), p. 172 

 with figs. ; Joum. Bot. XXVII. 129, with the same figs. ; and Journ. R. Hart! 

 Soc. XIV. 192. 



A. bifolia, Murray in Proceed. R Hort, Soc. III. 320, with fig (1863). 



A. subalpina, Engelmann, American Naturalist, X. 555 (1876). Masters in 

 Journ. Linn. Soc. XXII. 183, with figs. Sargent, Forest Trees N. Anier. 10th 

 Census, U.S.A. IX. 211. Beissner, Nadelhokk. 463. Macoun, Cat. Canad 

 Plants, 474. 



Pinus lasiocarpa,. Hooker, W., Fl. Bor. Amer. II. 163 (1840). Endlicher,. 

 Synops. Conif. 105. 



Abies balsamea, Torrey, Pacific Ry. Rep. IV. part V. 141 (in part). 



A. grandis, Carri&re, Traite Conif. ed. II. 296 (in part). 



Pinus amabilis, Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 426 (in part). 

 And many others.* 



Although the most widely distributed of the Silver Firs of western 

 America, Abies lasiocarpa is practically the least known of any of 

 them in Great Britain. The following sketch of its geographical 

 distribution is derived from the same authoritative source as the 

 description given above. 



" Abies lasiocarpa is an inhabitant of high mountain slopes and 

 summits and is distributed from at least lat. 61 IS", in Alaska 

 southwards along the coast ranges to the Olympic mountains of 

 Washington and over all the high ranges of British Columbia and 

 Alberta ; it extends along the Cascade mountains of Washington and 

 Oregon ; over the mountain ranges of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, 

 Colorado and Utah ; and finds its southerly home on the San Francisco 

 peaks of Northern Arizona.! Its A^ertical range in different parts of 

 the great region over which it is spread varies from 2,000 feet elevation 

 near its northern to 11,000 feet at its southern limit. The wood is 

 light and soft but not strong nor durable ; it is probably little used 

 except for fuel." 



Abies lasiocarpa has been sparingly in cultivation in British gardens 

 under Engelmann's name of A. subalpina for some years past, but by 

 whom or when it was introduced no record is to be found. Healthy 

 young trees in different parts of Great Britain should suggest a more 

 extended trial of it, especially in exposed places. It is perfectly hardy 

 but grows somewhat slowly, and such too is the experience of it in 

 the north-eastern States of North America. 



Abies magnifica. 



A gigantic tree 150 250 or more feet high, the trunk 8 10 feet 

 in diameter near the ground and covered with thick deeply fissured 

 red-brown bark and usually free of branches for 100 or more feet 



* Probably no species of Abies has been involved in more confusion as regards its 

 identification and nomenclature than the subject of the present notice. It would now be 

 superfluous to enter into any examination of the causes of the confusion, for the clearing 

 up of which science and horticulture are mainly indebted to Dr. Maxwell Masters in whose 

 elaborate articles in the "Gardeners' Chronicle" and "Journal of Botany" quoted above., 

 the question is fully discussed and finally set at rest. 



t That is to say a meridional range of nearly 30. 



