534 ABIES PINSAPO. 



in the relatively dry climate of England with the exceptions 

 noted, and in the eastern counties of Scotland it does not 

 grow satisfactorily. 



The claim of Abies Pindrow to specific rank has occasionally been 

 doubted ; Sir Dietrich Brandis, the author of the " Forest Flora of 

 North-west India," has declared against it, and following him Sir J. I). 

 Hooker reduced it to a variety of A, Welliana in the "Flora of 

 British India." As seen in Great Britain, scarcely any two species of 

 Abies are to be found more easily distinguishable the one from the 

 other than A. Pindrow and A. Webbiana even on superficial inspection. 

 In A. Pindrow the branches are much shorter in proportion to height 

 of trunk than in A. Webbiana, and are bent downwards, not spreading 

 or ascending ; the branehlets are slender, lax and sub-pendulous, not 

 stout and rigid ; the leaves are longer and narrower, not glaucous on 

 the under side, and of a different shade of green ; the cones are 

 much smaller, and when young paler in colour than those of 

 A. Webbiana. 



Abies Pinsapo. 



A much- branched tree 60 80 feet high with a gradually tapering 

 trunk 23 feet in diameter near the base, covered with greyish 

 brown bark that is . smooth in some of the largest trees growing in 

 Great Britain, rugged and much fissured in others. Branches in rather 

 close-set pseudo-whorls, short in proportion to height of trunk, the 

 lowermost depressed, those above spreading horizontally or ascending. 

 Branehlets distichous or in whorls of three four; bark light reddish 

 brown. Buds broadly conic, obtuse, 0'35 0*45 inch long, light fulvous 

 brown, usually covered with a film of translucent resin, the apical 

 bud with a circlet of three four smaller ones. Leaves persistent 

 seven nine years, spirally crowded, erect, 0*25 -0.75 inch long; on 

 the sterile branches sub-acicular, obscurely four-angled and compressed, 

 mncronate and sometimes falcately curved ; on the fertile branches!, 

 linear, flattened and obtuse, dull green with two pale stomatiferous 

 lines on the under side. Staminate flowers numerous, chiefly on the 

 under side and towards the distal end of the branehlets, fusiform- 

 cylindric, 0'5 inch long, violet-crimson and surrounded at the base by 

 broadly ovate, obtuse involucral bracts in two series. Cones sessile,. 

 solitary or in pairs, sub-cylindric, obtuse, i 5 inches long and 

 1 -52 inches in diameter ; scales triangular-cuneate, clawed, with entire 

 rounded and slightly reflexed outer margin ; bracts from a narrowed 

 base, ovate, mucronate, much shorter than the scales. Seed wing 

 obcuneate-obloiig. 



Abies Pinsapo, Boissier in Biblioth. Univ. Geneva, 1838 ; and Voyage Bot. era 

 Espagne, I. tt. 167168 ; and II. 584 (1845). Carriere, Traite Conif. ed. II. 303. 

 McNab in Proceed R Irish Aead. II. ser. 2, tig. 26. Beissner, Nadelholzk. 444 

 with fig. Masters in Gard. Chron. XXIV. (1885), p 468, with fig. ; and 

 Journ. R. Hort. Soc. XIV. 195. 



Picea Pinsapo, Loudon, Encycl. of Trees, 1041 (1842). Gordon, Pinet. ed. II.. 

 224. 



Pinus Pinsapo, Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 109 (1847). Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. 

 XVI. 423 (excl. African habitat). 



Eng. Spanish Fir. Fr. Sapin d'Espagne. Germ. Spanische "VVeisstanne. ItaL 

 Abete di Spagna. Span. Pinsapo. 



