THE PINETUM. 



Gen. ABIES.* Don. The Spruce Firs. 



Floivcrs, monoecious, or male and female on the same plant, 

 but separate ; the male catkins axillary or terminal, the female 

 ones terminal and solitary. 



Cones, pendent, solitary, terminal, and remaining on for a 

 lonsf time. 



Scales, persistent, leathery, thin, broadly rounded, and some- 

 times undulated on the edo-es. 



Seeds, oblong, pointed with a short, stiff deciduous wing, and 

 bony shell. 



Bracteas, small and hidden by the scales, or long and trident, 

 like the Dousrlas Fir. 



Seed-leaves, from 7 to 9 in number. 



Leaves, solitary, four-sided, acute-pointed, and scattered all 

 round the shoots, or flat and more or less two-rowed, like the 

 Hemlock Spruce. 



* The name "Abies" is said by some writers to be derived from 

 " Apios," a pear-tree, the cones being like its fruit ; while others derive 

 the name from " Abeo," to rise or spring up, in allusion to its aspiring 

 habit of growth, and which Prior so impressively describes in the fol- 

 lowing lines : 



" There towering firs in conic forms arise, 

 And with a pointed spear divide the skies." 

 B 



