526 ABIES NORDMANNIANA. 



Abies Nordmanniana. 



A stately tree attaining a height of 75 150 or more feet with a 

 tapering trunk 3 4 feet in diameter near the ground ; the bark of 

 the oldest trees growing in Great Britain greyish brown, smooth or 

 marked with shallow fissures. Branches spreading, the lowermost 

 depressed, those above horizontal or ascending. Brunchlets distichous 

 and opposite with light brown striated bark. Buds globose-conic, about 

 0*25 inch long, with reddish brown, broadly ovate, perular scales. 

 Leaves persistent seven ten years, narrowly linear, obtuse or emarginate, 

 0*75 1 inch long, bright grass-green with a ' narrow median groove 

 above, paler with two whitish stomatiferous bands below ; those on the 

 under side of the shoot pseudo-distichous in two three ranks ; those 

 on the upper side pointing forwards and loosely imbricated. Staminate 

 flowers crowded on the under side of the braiichlets, ovoid-cylindric, 

 about 0'4 inch long; the involucral bracts at the base of each, scale- 

 like in three series and closely imbricated. Cones ovoid-cylindric, 

 sub-acute, 6 inches long and 1 -5 inch in diameter, dark brown ; scales 

 sub-reniform with a short cuneate claw, and with the outer edge entire or 

 minutely denticulate; bracts oblong spathulate, cuspidate, longer than the 

 scale and exserted, reflexed at the apex, the exposed margin notched. 



Abies Nordmanniana, Spach, Hist. Veg. Phan. XI. 418 (1842). Carriere, Traite 

 Conif. ed. I. 203 (1855) ; and ed. II. 276 (1867). Regel, Gartenfl. XXII. 259, 

 with fig. McNab in Proceed. R. Irish Acad. II. ser. 2, 694, fig. 22. Boissier, 

 Fl. orient. V. 703. Hooker fil. Bot. Mag. t. 6992. Masters in Gard. Chron. 

 XXV. (1886), p. 142, with fig.; and Jouru. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 194. 

 Beissner, Nadelholzk. 434, with fig. 



A. Eichleri, Lauch in Gartenzeit. 1882, p. 63. Hemsley in Gard. Chron. 

 XVII. (1882), p. 145. 



Picea Nordmanniana, London, Encycl. of Trees, 1042, with fig. (1842). 

 Gordon, Pinet. ed II. 208. 



Pinus Nordmanniana, Steven, Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. (1838), p. 45, fig. 2. 

 Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 93. 



P. Abies. Pallas, Fl. Ross. 6, t. 1. fig. G. (not Duroi), 1784. Parlatore, D. C. 

 Prodr. XVI. 412, in part. 



Eng. Nordmann's Fir. Germ. Nordmann's Tanne. Ital. Abete di Nordmann. 



Abies Nordmanniana was first recognised as a distinct species by 

 the Finnish botanist Alexander Nordmann who met with it in 1837 

 near one of the sources of the Kur river on the Adschur or Atskur 

 range of mountains in the Caucasian province of Imeritia where it 

 is very abundant. There is, however, sufficient evidence to show that 

 Nordmann was not the original discoverer of it, since the region 

 over which it is spread had been previously partially explored by 

 Pallas in the latter part of the eighteenth century and more fully 

 by Bieberstein in the early part of the nineteenth century, both of 

 whom record a Silver Fir* but refer it to the common European 

 species which is nowhere found in the Trans- Caucasian provinces. 

 Since Nordmann's journey, the region has been frequently visited 

 both by Eussian and German botanists, and the geographical range 

 of Abies Nordmanniana can be defined with approximate accuracy: 



* Pallas, Flora Rossica, p, 6, t. 1, fig. G. (1784). Bieberstein, Flora Taurico-Caucasica, 

 Vol. II. p. 409 (1808). 



