172 



ABELIA 



ABIES 



flowers are gone the feathery sepals remain as an 

 attractive feature. 



floribunda, Decaisne. Shrub, 4 ft.: Ivs. persistent, 

 oval to oval-oblong, }^-\ in. long, crenate-serrate, 

 ciliate: peduncles axillary, 1-3-fld.; corolla carmine- 

 purple, nodding, tubular, 1J^ in. long; sepals oblong, 

 Jiin. long. Summer. Mex. B.M. 4316. F.S. 2:5. 

 R.B.23:157. Gn. 13:120. B.R.33:55. R. H. 1912:544. 



A. bifldra, Turcz. Lvs. ovate-lanceolate, hairy, coarsely ser- 

 rate, deciduous: fls. white, tubular, in 2's; sepals 4. Manchuria, 

 N. China. A. serrata, Sieb. & Zucc. Similar to A. biflora. Fls. 

 funnelform, pink, little over Min. long, in 2's; sepals 2. Japan. 

 S.Z. 1:34. A. spathuldta, Sieb. & Zucc. Allied to A. biflora. Lvs. 

 ovate: fls. over 1 in. long, white tinged yellow in throat; sepals 5. 

 Japan. S.Z. 1:34. B.M. 6601. G. 27:345. G.M. 

 45:335 (as A. serrata). A. uniflbra, R. Br. (A. 

 serrata, Nichols., not Sieb. & Zucc.). Lvs. persis- 

 tent, ovate-lanceolate: fls. in loose terminal pani- 

 cles, campanulate, 1 in. long, rosy white with yel- 

 low in throat; sepals 2. China. B.M. 4694. F.S. 

 8:824. J.F. 4, pi. 380. B.H. 3:338. G.C. III. 

 37:323. Gn.W. 21:933 (as A. chinensis). Gn. 27, 



p ' 425 ' ALFRED REHDER. 



ABELlCEA: Zelkom. 

 ABELM6SCHUS: HMscut. 



ABERIA (named from Mt. Aber, Abyssinia, where y 

 first species was found). Doryalis, Arn. & E. Mey. 

 FlacourtiAcex. Small trees or shrubs, with alternate, sim- 

 ple exstipulate leaves and small inconspicuous flowers. 



Flowers dioecious; staminate fls. with a 4-5-parted 

 calyx and no petals, and with many stamens, arranged on 

 a fleshy receptacle; pistillate fls. with a 5-7-parted, per- 

 sistent calyx and no petals, the ovary free, sessile, 1-6- 

 celled, on a lobed usually fleshy disk ; fr. fleshy, inde- 

 hiscent. Eleven species in Afr. and Ceylon. 



caffra, Hook. f. & Harv. Fig. 59. Thorny, glabrous: 

 Ivs. obovate, obtuse, cuneate at base, entire: fls. 

 difficious, apetalous. G.C. III. 18:737. R.H. 1904:256. 

 The kei apple of the Cape of Good Hope; a spiny 

 plant grown S. for hedges; is considered promising for 

 S. Calif, and S. Fla. as a fr. plant. Fruit acid, used as 

 pickles or conserves. Proves quite hardy in S. Calif. 



Gfirdneri, Clos. A small, much-branched tree, 16-20 

 ft.: Ivs. 2J^-4 in. long, lanceolate or oval, acute at 

 both ends: fls. greenish, staminate fls. in umbellate 

 clusters, the pistillate axillary in the branches: fr. 1 

 in. diam., pale purple, edible. June. India and Ceylon. 



N. TAYLOR, t 



ABIES (derivation doubtful). PinAcex. FIR, but 

 the name spruce is often erroneously applied. Tall, 

 pyramidal trees of temperate and cool climates, planted 

 for ornament and for shelter, and also for timber. The 

 word abi-es is pronounced in three syllables, the e being 

 long. 



Leaves lanceolate or oblanceolate, entire, sessile, 

 persistent for many years; on young plants and lower 

 sterile branches flattened, usually deep green and 

 lustrous above and silvery white beneath from the pres- 

 ence of many rows of stomata, rounded and variously 

 notched at the apex, appearing 2-ranked by a twist at 

 their base; on upper fertile branches crowded, more or 

 less erect, often incurved or falcate, thickened or quad- 

 rangular, obtuse or acute: fls. axillary, appearing in 

 early spring from buds formed the previous summer on 

 branchlets of the year, surrounded by involucres of the 

 enlarged scales of the fl.-buds; staminate fls. pen- 

 dent on branches above the middle of the tree; pistil- 

 late fls. globular, ovoid or oblong, erect on the topmost 

 branches: fr. an erect ovoid or oblong cylindrical cone, 

 its scales longer or shorter than their bracts, separating 

 at maturity from the stout persistent axis. Northern 

 and mountainous regions of the northern hemisphere, 

 often gregarious. Twenty-three species are distin- 

 guished; greatest segregation on the Cascade Mts. of 

 Ore., in the countries adjacent to the Medit., and in 

 Japan. Many species which have been referred to Abies 



are now included in Picea. S.S. 12. Heinrich Mayr, 

 Monographic der Abietineen des Japanischen Reiches 

 Gn. 11, pp. 280, 281. See Arboriculture. 



All the species of abies produce soft, perishable wood, 

 sometimes manufactured into lumber, and balsamic 

 exudations contained in the prominent resin vesicles in 

 the bark characteristic of the genus. They are hand- 

 some in cultivation, but usually of short-lived beauty. 

 The firs prefer moist, well-drained soil. As timber- 

 producing trees, the species of abies are less valuable 

 than the spruces (Picea) and in the United States they 

 have not been planted except for ornament. In Europe, 

 where this tree is sometimes planted as a forest crop, 

 the wood of the European A. Picea is valued, and in 

 the Pacific states the wood of A. grandis, A. concolor 

 and A. magnified is employed in the manufacture of 



fruit-boxes and wooden- 

 ware. 



In cultivation, firs are 

 most beautiful while 

 young, and usually lose 

 their lower branches and 

 become thin and un- 

 sightly as they grow 

 older, and many of the 

 species have little orna- 

 mental value for more 

 than fifty years. In the 

 northern and eastern 

 states, the most valuable 

 ornamental species are 

 the Colorado form of A. 

 concolor, with pale or 

 bluish foliage, and the 

 Japanese A. brachy- 

 phylla, with leaves 

 that are dark green 

 and very lustrous above 

 and silvery beneath. In 

 the United States, A. 

 brachyphylla assumes a 

 compact pyramidal form 

 of growth, but in Japan 

 old trees become, un- 

 like those of any other 

 fir, round-headed. The 

 other Japanese fir that 

 has been cultivated in the United States long enough 

 to show its value as an ornamental tree, A. Veilchii, 

 produces longer branches than A. brachyphylla and is of 

 more open habit and is less valuable for ornamental 

 use. After A. concolor and A. brachyphylla, the best fir 

 trees for the eastern United States are A. cilicica from 

 Asia Minor and A. N ordmanniana from the Caucasus. 

 In its young state, A. cilicica forms a dense pyramid of 

 gray-green foliage and as it grows in the Pinetum at 

 Wellesley, Massachusetts, is an object of great beauty. 

 A. N ordmanniana is one of the commonest fir trees 

 cultivated in the eastern states, although it sometimes 

 suffers from cold in New England, where it frequently 

 becomes thin and unsightly. In the middle states, how- 

 ever, it is often an object of great beauty. The two 

 eastern American species, A. balsamea and A. Fraseri, 

 and the related species from the Rocky Mountains, 

 A. lasiocarpa, grow badly in cultivation, and are short- 

 lived and not handsome. Of the Pacific coast species, 

 A. grandis can be kept alive in favorable situations in 

 the eastern states, and A. amabilis, which grows slowly 

 always in cultivation, is hardy but gives little promise 

 of becoming of much value anywhere except on the 

 mountains of northeastern America. The summers in 

 the southern states are too hot for the successful culti- 

 vation of fir trees, and the climatic conditions of the 

 Mississippi Valley are not favorable for their success- 

 ful growth. In the parks and gardens of the Pacific 

 states, fir trees grow better than in any other part of 



59. Aberia caffra. (fr. 



