Abies 



755 



ABIES PINDROW, Pindrow Fir 



Abies Pindrow, Spach, Hist. Vig. xi. 423 (1842); Masters, Gard. Chron. xxv. 691, f. 154 (1886); 



Kent, Veitch's Man. Conifera, 533 (1900); Gamble, Indian Timbers, 719 (1902); Brandis, 



Indian Trees, 692, 720 (1906). 

 Abies Webbiana, Lindley, var. Pindrow, Brandis, Forest Flora Brit. India, 528 (1874); Hooker, 



Flora Brit. India, v. 655 (1888). 

 Pinus Pindrow, Royle, Illust. Bot. Himalaya, 354, t. 86 (1839). 

 Picea Pindrow, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2346 (1838). 



A tree attaining in the Himalayas over 200 feet in height, with a girth of 25 

 feet. Narrowly pyramidal in habit, with the branches small and short. Bark 

 smooth and silvery grey when young ; greyish brown, deeply and longitudinally 

 fissured on old trunks. 



Buds large, globose, covered with white resin. Young shoots quite smooth, 

 grey, glabrous, the bark Assuring slightly in the second year. Leaves on lateral 

 branches mostly pectinate below, pointing forwards and outwards in the horizontal 

 plane, some of the median leaves, however, being directed downwards and forwards ; 

 above, covering the shoot, those in the middle line much shorter and directed 

 forwards and slightly upwards. Leaves, soft in texture, up to t.\ inches long, very 

 narrow (^ s inch wide), linear, flattened, shortly tapering at the base and narrowing 

 gradually in the anterior third to the acute apex, which is bifid with sharp unequal 

 cartilaginous points ; upper surface dark green, shining, with a continuous median 

 groove and without stomata ; lower surface paler with two greyish bands of stomata, 

 each of about eight lines ; resin-canals marginal. Leaves on cone-bearing shoots all 

 upturned and more or less directed forwards, covering the shoot in the middle line 

 above, shorter than on barren branches and only slightly bifid at the apex. 



Cones on short stout stalks, bluish when growing, brown when mature, cylindrical, 

 about 6 inches long by 3 inches in diameter. Scales ; lamina about 15 inch wide by 

 f inch long, fan-shaped, variable in form, with two slight wings in cultivated speci- 

 mens, not winged and with the lateral edges straight or curved in 'wild specimens, 

 base auricled. Bracts with the expanded portion situated on the scale just above 

 the claw, oval, denticulate, emarginate above with a minute mucro. Seed with wing 

 about 1 inch long, the wing narrowly trapezoidal and about i|- times as long as 

 the body of the seed. 



Identification 



Abies Pindrow is remarkably different in most characters from Abies Webbiana, 

 with which it has been united by many authors. The trees are very distinct in 

 habit, A. Pindrow forming, both in the Himalayas and in cultivation in England, a 

 narrow pyramid with short branches ; while A. Webbiana is a broader tree with 

 wide-spreading branches. The bark of the former is smooth, that of the latter 

 scaly. The former has smooth, glabrous, grey shoots ; the latter has shoots with 



