74^ The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



Mr. Hunnewell's pinetum, Wellesley, Mass. j 1 Mr. Hall's garden, near Bristol, Rhode 

 Island ; and Mr. Hoope's pinetum, West Chester, Pennsylvania. Sargent states 

 that the tree does not thrive in western Europe, as the young shoots, which appear 

 early in the spring, are killed by late frosts ; and in consequence it is not propagated 

 by nurserymen. Seeds from wild trees are difficult to procure. (A. H.) 



ABIES NORDMANNIANA, Caucasian Fir 



Abies Nordmanniana, Spach, Hist. Vig. xi. 418 (1842); Regel, in Gartenflora, xx. 259, t. 699 (187 1); 



J. D. Hooker, Bot. Mag. t 6992 (1888); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxv. 142, f. 30 (1886); Kent, 



Veitch's Man. Coniferce, 526 (1900). 

 Pinus Nordmanniana, Steven, Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscow, xi. 45, t. 2 (1838); Loudon, Gard. Mag. 



xv. 225 (1839). 

 Picea Nordmanniana, Loudon, Encycl. Trees, 1042 (1842). 



A tree attaining in the Caucasus over 200 feet in height and 15 feet in girth. 

 Bark in cultivated trees greyish brown, smooth when young, becoming slightly 

 fissured in older trunks. Buds ovoid, acute at the apex, brown, non-resinous, with 

 ovate, acute, slightly keeled scales. Young shoots grey, smooth, with very scattered 

 short erect pubescence. 



Leaves on lateral branchlets, pectinately arranged below, the two lateral sets 

 spreading more or less in the horizontal plane ; those above shorter, directed forwards 

 and densely covering the branchlet in imbricated ranks. Leaves linear, flattened, 

 about 1 to i^- inch long, ^ to ^ inch wide, uniform in width except at the gradually 

 tapering base ; apex rounded and bifid ; upper surface dark green, shining, with a 

 continuous median groove and without stomata ; lower surface with two con- 

 spicuously white bands of stomata, each of eight or nine lines ; resin-canals marginal. 

 Leaves on cone-bearing branches all curved and upturned. 



Staminate flowers ovoid-cylindric, ^ inch long, each with three series of 

 involucral bracts. 



Cones sub-sessile, cylindrical, tapering at both ends, about 6 inches long by 2 

 inches in diameter, brown in colour, with the bracts exserted and reflexed. Scales : 

 lamina, about \\ inch wide by f inch long, either with a denticulate wing on each 

 side or with straight lateral margins ; claw obcuneate. Bract with oblong claw, 

 expanding above into an almost orbicular lamina, which is denticulate and tipped 

 with a long triangular mucro. Seed with wing about an inch long, the wing being 

 twice the length of the body of the seed. 



Varieties and Hybrids 

 Several varieties are mentioned by Beissner, which are said to differ from the 

 type in foliage, the leaves being shorter, glaucous, or yellow in colour. None of 

 these appear to be in cultivation in England. 



1 Elwes saw this tree in May 1905, and remarked that it was very similar in growth to A. Nordmanniana, which has 

 shorter darker leaves and denser habit. It had not suffered from the severe frost of the preceding winter which in some places 

 had injured the Caucasian fir. According to Sargent, The Pinetum at Wellesley in 1905, p. 12, this tree is 49 feet high and 

 S feet in girth. 



