522 ABIES NOBILIS. 



stomatiferous band on each side of the midrib below ; those on the 

 under side of the shoot pseudo-distichous by a twist at the base to 

 bring them into a horizontal position, those on the upper side curved 

 upwards and inwards. Staminate flowers shortly pedicelled and closely 

 packed mostly on the under side of the branchlets, cylindric, about 

 an inch long and often curved, reddish crimson, surrounded at the base 

 by triangular-ovate involucral bracts in three four series. Cones among 

 the largest in the genus, cylindric, obtuse, 6 8 inches long and 

 2 3 inches in diameter.* Scales triangular with an acute awl-shaped 

 claw, about 1 inch long and 1*25 inch broad, the exposed apical 

 margin entire and incurved ; bracts longer than the scales, cuneate- 

 spathuJate, exserted and bent downwards, with an acuminate flattened 

 mucro 0*5 inch long at the apex. Seed wings broadly wedge-shaped, 

 irregularly truncate at the apex. 



Abies nobilis, Lindley in Penny Cyclop. I. 30 (1833). Forbes, Pinet. Woburo, 

 115, t. 40. Link in Linnrea, XV. 532. Carriere, Traite Couif. ed. II. 268. 

 Engelmann in Gard. Chron. IX. (1878), p. 334 ; XII. (1879), p. 684, in part : 

 and Brewer and Watson's Bot. Califor. II. 119. Masters in Journ. Linn. Soc. 

 XXII. 188, t. 4 (excl. hab. Mt. Shasta and var. magnitica) ; Gard. Chron. XXIV. 

 (1885), p. 652, with fig. ; and Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 193. Beissner, 

 Nadelholzk. 484, with figs. Sargent, Silva N. Amer. XII. 133, t. 617. 



Picea nobilis, London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2342, with figs. Lawson, Pinet. 

 Brit. II. 181, tt. 28, 29. and figs. Gordon, Pinet. ed. II. 207. 



Pseudotsuga nobilis, McNab in Proceed. R. Irish Acad. II. ser. 2, 699, fig. 29. 



Pinns nobilis, Douglas in Comp. Bot. Mag. II. 147. Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 

 90. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 419. 



Eng. Noble Fir. Amer. Red Fir, Larch Fir of Oregon. Germ. Edle-Weisstanne. 

 Ital. A bete nobile. 



Abies nobilis forms large forests along the slopes of the Cascade 

 mountains of Oregon from the Upper Eogue river to the Columbia 

 with a vertical range of between 2,500 and 5,000 feet elevation ; 

 it also occurs along the coast range of Oregon in much fewer 

 numbers but where it attains its greatest individual development ; it 

 has also recently been found on Mount Eanier in Washington up 

 to 5,000 feet elevation but nowhere wild in California. It was 

 originally discovered by David Douglas during his first mission to 

 north-west America near the Grand Eapids of the Columbia river 

 in 1825, but it was not till his second mission and during his 

 excursion up the Columbia in 1830 that he was able to collect seeds 

 and send them to England. 



At that time the great forests which covered the Cascade mountains 

 had probably not been penetrated by the white man ; half a century 

 later, a railway traversed the country; saw-mills have been established 

 011 the principal streams, and the once great forest of Abies nobilis 

 which made so vivid an impression on David Douglas and others who 

 subsequently visited it, is fast disappearing under the axe of the 

 lumberer. It is by no means rash to surmise what its fate will be 

 within the next half century unless the State intervenes to arrest its 

 total destruction. 



As an ornamental tree for the lawn, park and landscape, Abies 

 nobilis ranks among the best of the Silver Firs ; its outline is regular 



* Usually smaller in the forests of Oregon. 



