Abies 737 



ABIES NUMIDICA, Algerian Fir 



Abies numidica, De l^annoy, ex Carriere, Rev. Hort. 1866, pp. 106, 203 ; Van Houtte, Flore des Serves, 

 xvii. 9, t. 1717 (1867); Masters, Gard. Chron. iii. 140 (in part and excluding figures) (1888); 

 Trabut, Rev. Gin. Bot. i. 405, ff. 17, 18 (1889); Kent, Veitch's Man. Conifera, 529 (1900). 



Abies Pinsapo, Boissier, var. baborensis, Cosson, Bull. Soc. Bot. France, viii. 607 (1861). 



Abies baborensis, Letourneux, Cat. Arb. et Arbust. d'Alge'rie (1888). 



Finns Pinsapo, Parlatore, DC. Prod. xvi. 2, p. 423 (in part) (1868). 



Picea numidica, Gordon, Pinet. 220 (1875). 



A tree attaining 70 feet in height and 8 feet in girth. Bark grey, smooth in 

 young trees, becoming scaly and fissured on old trunks. Buds large, ovoid, acute at 

 the apex, non-resinous ; scales ovate, acute, with white scarious margins, usually free 

 at the apex. Young shoots brown, shining, glabrous, with slightly raised pulvini but 

 without grooves. 



Leaves on lateral branches pectinate below, the two lateral sets directed outwards 

 in the horizontal plane ; those above shorter, crowded, directed upwards, and either, 

 as on weak shoots, forming a narrow V-shaped pectinate arrangement, or, on strong 

 shoots, with the median leaves directed backwards (not seen in any other species) 

 and covering the upper side of the branchlet. Leaves short, ^ to f inch long, ^ 

 inch broad, linear, flattened, gradually tapering to the base, broadest above the 

 middle or uniform in width in the upper three-fourths, rounded at the apex, which is 

 sometimes entire but usually slightly bifid ; upper surface dark green, shining, with 

 the median groove often faint and rarely continued to the apex, in many leaves with 

 four to six broken lines of stomata in the middle line near the apex ; under surface 

 with two white bands of stomata, each of about eight to nine lines ; resin-canals 

 marginal. Leaves on cone-bearing branches all more or less upturned, those of the 

 middle ranks also directed slightly backwards, short, rigid, rounded and entire at the 

 apex. 



Cones on short stout stalks, brownish, cylindrical with an obtuse apex and 

 tapering base, about 5 inches long by i inch in diameter, with the bracts entirely 

 concealed. Scales ; lamina fan-shaped, \\ inch wide, f inch long, upper margin 

 almost entire, lateral margins denticulate and either straight or with a wing on each 

 side above ; claw short, obcuneate. Bracts, scarcely reaching half the height of the 

 scales, with a broad oblong claw and an expanded ovate denticulate lamina, which 

 is acuminate or cuspidate at the mucronate apex. Seed with wing about an inch 

 long ; wing about \\ times as long as the body of seed. Cones of cultivated trees 

 have smaller scales with more developed lateral wings ; and shorter bracts, scarcely 

 reaching \ the height of the scale. 



The seedlings of this species have been fully described by Fliche. 1 



1 In Bull. Soc. Forest. Franche-Conti et Belfort, 1903, p. 168. 

 IV E 



