530 ABIES PECTIN ATA. 



Abies numidica was discovered by Captain Guibert in 1861. Shortly 

 afterwards MM. Letourneux and Perrandiere gathered branches of it 

 Avhich they brought to M. Cosson, a well-known botanist of that time, 

 who took the tree to be a variety of the Spanish Fir, A. Pinsapo. 

 It was M. de Lannoy, Superintendent of roads and bridges for the 

 province, who first recognised it as a species distinct from A. Pinsapo, 

 and who gave it the name of A. numidica. The first seeds were sent 

 to France about the year 1862 by M. Davout, Conservator-General 

 of the Algerine forests, and a little later, in 1864, by M. de Lannoy. 



From France the species has found its way into Great Britain but 

 in numbers so restricted that up to the present time it has been too 

 sparsely distributed to admit of any general statement being made 

 respecting its usefulness as an ornamental tree, the only purpose for 

 which it should be planted. Its hardiness equals that of Cedrus atlantica, 

 and the specimens upwards of 20 feet high, growing at Pampesford 

 near Cambridge, at Bicton in Devonshire, at Streatham Hall, Exeter, 

 and in the Royal Botanic Garden at Glasnevin, Dublin, give a favourable 

 impression of its beauty and distinctness. 



Abies pectinata. 



A lofty tree varying in height from 100 to 180 feet with a straight, 

 erect, slightly tapering trunk 6 8 feet in diameter near the base, 

 regularly furnished with tiers of branches from the ground upwards 

 during the first thirty to forty years, in favourable localities much 

 longer, and covered with smooth greyish brown bark. In old age 

 the bark rugged and more or less fissured longitudinally, the trunk 

 free of branches for a great part of the height, and the persistent 

 branches forming the crown, of unequal length and spreading horizontally. 

 Ramification distichous and opposite : bark of branchlets pale brown 

 with longitudinal striations. Buds cylindric-coriic, chestnut-brown. 

 Leaves persistent five seven or more years, linear, obtuse or emarginate, 

 0*5 1*25 inch long, pseudo-distichous in two three ranks ; on fertile 

 branchlets all more or less upturned \ grooved along the midrib and 

 dark lustrous green above, with two silvery grey stomatiferous bands 

 below. Stammate flowers crowded among the leaves, cylindric, 

 0*75 inch long, greenish yellow, surrounded at the base by imbricated 

 involucral bracts in two three series. Cones cylindric, obtuse, 

 6 8 inches long and 1'5 2 inches in diameter. Scales nearly as 

 long as broad, with a rounded exposed margin and cuneate base ; 

 bracts linear-spathulate, prolonged beyond the scale into a sharp 

 reflexed mucro. Seeds angular with a rhombic wing twice as long as 

 the seed. 



Abies pectinata, De Candolle, Flore Franc. III. 276 (1805). Richard, Mem. sur 

 les Conif. 73 (1826). Forbes, Pinet. Woburn, 105. Link in Liimtea, XV. 526. 

 Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 276. Hoopes, Evergreens, 205. McNab in Proceed. 

 R. Irish Acad. II. ser. 2, 693, figs. 2021. Boissier, Fl. orient. V. 701. Beissner, 

 Nadelholzk. 428, with figs. Masters in Jonrn. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 194. 



Picea pectinata, London. Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. 2329, with figs. Gordon, Pinet. 

 ed. II. 209. 



Pinus Abies, Duroi, Observ. Bot. 39 (1771) (not Linnaeus). Endlicher, Synops. 

 Conif. 95. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 420. 



P. Picea, Linnaeus, Sp. Plant. II. 1001(1753). Lambert, Genus Pinus, 1. 1. 30 (1803). 



Eng. Common Silver Fir. Fr. Sapin des Vosges, Sapin de Lorraine. Germ. 

 Weisstanne, Silbertanne. Ital. Abete argentato. Abete bianco. 



