SILVER FIRS. 209 



inner margin straight. Stem, exceedingly straight, and from 

 eighty to a hundred feet high, and three feet in diameter, with 

 a smooth bark when full grown. 



This beautiful tree is common on the Crimean Mountains 

 and those east of the Black Sea. Professor Nordmann, of 

 Odessa, discovered it first on the summit of the Adshar Moun- 

 tains, towards the sources of the Kur, at an elevation of 6000 

 feet, and M. Wittmann observed it on the southern declivity 

 of the mountains between Cartalin and Achalzich, as far up as 

 the Alpine regions, growing amongst a forest of Abies Orien- 

 talis, and nearly 100 feet high. The timber is good and harder 

 than that of the celebrated Oriental Spruce. 



The young shoots of this Fir are quite smooth and glossy 

 (hence the name leioclada), and its timber is said to be much 

 harder than that of the common Silver Fir. A truly beautiful 

 tree, from its leaves being very silvery beneath, and the great 

 abundance of its large, purplish strobiles, which are produced 

 on the upper side of the branches. 



It is perfectly hardy, and commences growing late in the 

 spring. 



' No. 11. Picea pectinata, Loudon, the Common Silver Fir. 



Syn. Abies taxifolia, Desfont. 

 vulgaris, Poiret. 

 Picea, Lindley. 

 argentea, Be Chamb. 

 alba, Miller. 

 pectinata, Be Candole. 



Picea taxifolia, Hort. 



Pinus Picea, Willd., not Tournefort. 

 Abies, Buroi. 

 pectinata, Lamarck. 



Leaves solitary, flat, obtuse, and two-rowed, with their points 

 turned up ; from three quarters to an inch long, stiff, and of a 

 shining dark green above and with two lines of a silvery white 

 on each side of the mid-rib beneath. Cones from six to seven 

 p 



