ABIES NOBILIS. 



521 



Abies nobilis. 



A stately tree attaining a height that varies in individuals according 

 to locality and environment from 100 to 200 or more feet, with a 

 trunk 4 5 feet in diameter near the 

 base, covered with reddish brown 

 bark in its native forests; smooth in 

 the younger trees, deeply fissured into 

 broad ridges in the older ones ; in 

 Great Britain the trunk gradually 

 tapering and frequently marked with 

 large resinous blisters. Branches 

 pseudo-whorled, for the most part 

 spreading horizontally, the lowermost 

 usually made decumbent by the 

 weight of their appendages. Branchlets 

 opposite, often crowded, rigid with 

 reddish brown bark and densely 

 clothed with foliage, the herbaceous 

 shoots pubescent. Buds small, globose, 

 almost concealed by the apical leaves, 

 the perular scales thickish and reddish 

 brown. Leaves persistent seven ten 

 years, close-set, spirally arranged around 

 the stems, 0'5 1'5 inch long, linear, 

 sub-falcate, obtuse or shortly mucronate; 

 with a shallow groove along the mid- 

 rib, ' and dull bluish green, often 

 glaucous above, with a glaucous 



Fig. 136. Fertile branchlet with cone of Abies nobilis about one-half nat. size. 



