536 ABIES RELIGIOSA. 



under the name of Widdringtonia. It has now become one of the, 

 most generally cultivated of the European Abies, as it is also one of 

 the most ornamental ; the oldest trees up to the present time have 

 for the most part retained their lowermost branches in health and 

 vigour where sufficient space has been allowed for their development, 

 which should not be less than a radius of 20 feet. It is quite hardy, 

 and thrives in almost any soil not too wet and cold; it is especially 

 suitable for chalk land on which it grows into a fine landscape tree; 

 it is also one of the best of the Abies for the lawn and pleasure 

 ground ; it is rarely if ever subject to injury by late spring frosts 

 owing to its being late in starting into growth. Several varieties have 

 been noted, but none of them are of sufficient merit to require 

 description. The variety ylauca is attractive ; the glaucescence, however, 

 appears to be an accident caused by the soil in which the plant is 

 growing ; Hammondi described in the former edition is an abnormity 

 due to the loss or removal of the leader shoot in the young state 

 of the plant. Nothing is authentically recorded of the quality of the 

 timber of Abies Pinsapo. 



Abies religiosa. 



A lofty tree 100 150 feet high with a trunk 5 6 feet in 

 diameter, covered with ash or .greyish brown bark broken into oblong 

 plates by broad longitudinal and narrow transverse fissures which 

 expose a reddish brown inner cortex. Branches spreading, slender in 

 proportion to trunk and ramified distichously. Branchlets with light 

 reddish brown bark, the herbaceous shoots hairy (hirtellous) and striated 

 longitudinally. Buds sub-globose, about 0'35 inch in diameter, with 

 light brown perular scales. Leaves persistent five six years, linear, 

 obtuse or sub-acute, often curved, 0'75 1-5 inch long, spirally 

 arranged, those on the under side of the shoot pseudo-distichous in 

 three four ranks and more or less curved inwards, those on the 

 upper side inclined forwards at a small angle to the axis, grooved 

 along the midrib and dark green above, with two silvery grey 

 stomatiferous bands below. Cones sessile, cylindric-oblong, slightly 

 narrowed towards the apex, 46 inches long and 2 2 '5 inches in 

 diameter, dark violet-blue changing to dark brown when mature ; 

 scales broadly obovate, cuneate ; bracts with a triangular, acuminate, 

 recurved tip. Seed wings oblique obovate.* 



Abies religiosa, Schlechtendal in Linnsea, V. 77 (1830). Carriere, Traite Couif. 

 ed. II. 273. McNab in Proceed. R. Irish. Acad. II. ser. 2, 676, fig. 2. Hooker til, 

 Bot. Mag. t. 6753. Masters in Gard. Chron. XXIII. (1885), p. 56, with tig. ; 

 IX. ser. 3 (1891), p. 304, with fig.; Jonrn. Linn. Soc. XXII. 195 ; and Journ. R. 

 Hort. Soc. XIV. 195. Beissner, Nadelliolzk. 495. 



A. hirtella, Lindley in Penny Cyclop. I. 30 (1833). 



Picea religiosa, London, Arb. et Frut. Brit. IV. '2349, with fig. (1838). Gordon, 

 Pinet. ed. II. 212. 



Pinns religiosa, Humboldt, Bonpland and Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Sp. II. 5 (1815). 

 Endlicher, Synops. Conif. 92. Parlatore, D. C. Prodr. XVI. 420. 



Eng. Sacred Fir. Germ. Heilige Weisstanne. Mex. Oyamel. 



Abies religiosa was discovered in 1799 by Humboldt, who saw it 

 in two localities on the mountains near the city of Mexico at 



* Branchlet with cone, communicated by Mr. Osborne, Gardener to the Right Hon. A. H. 

 Smith Barry, Fota Island, Co. Cork. 



