Abies 771 



Cultivation 



It seems to grow fairly well though rather slowly on soils which contain no 

 lime ; but it will not live on the calcareous soil at Colesborne. 



We have seen no trees of considerable size. One at Tregrehan near St. 

 Austell, measured 27 feet by 2 feet in 1908 ; and another at Ochtertyre, Perth- 

 shire, measured 30 feet by 2 feet in the same year. Mr. Bean 1 noticed in 1906 

 a specimen 31 feet high at Murthly Castle, and another 20 feet high at Dalkeith 

 Palace. Small specimens will be found in most collections of conifers; and the 

 young trees at Kew at present appear to thrive better than most species of Abies. 



(H. J. E.) 



ABIES MARIESII, Maries' Fir 



Abies Mariesii, Masters, 2 Gard. Chron. xii. 788, f. 129 (1879), and Journ. Linn. Soc. {Bot.) 

 xviii. 519 (1881) ; Mayr, Abiet. Japan. Reiches, 40, t. 2, f. 5 (1890); Shirasawa, Icon. Essences 

 Forest. Japon, text 15, t. 4. ff. 15-28 (1900); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferce, 520 (1900). 



A tree, attaining in Japan about 80 feet in height and 6 feet in girth. 

 Buds small, globose, resinous ; terminal buds on strong shoots are girt at the 

 base by a ring of ovate, acuminate, rusty- red pubescent scales. Young shoots 

 densely covered with a rusty-red tomentum, retained more or less in older shoots, 

 the bark slightly Assuring in the third year. 



Leaves on lateral branches arranged as in Abies Nordmanniana, the median 

 leaves on the upper side almost appressed to the stem in imbricating ranks, and 

 about \ to f the length of the lower leaves, which spread pectinately outwards and 

 slightly forwards in the horizontal plane. Leaves linear, flattened, tapering at the 

 base and gradually widening beyond the middle, so that their broadest part is in the 

 upper third ; about f inch in maximum length, ^ to ^ inch wide ; apex rounded 

 and bifid ; upper surface yellowish green, shining, with a continuous median groove 

 and without stomata ; lower surface with two white bands of stomata, each of eight or 

 nine lines ; resin-canals marginal. Leaves on cone-bearing branches all appressed 

 more or less to the shoot, upturned, and shorter than on barren branches. 



Cones sessile, deep blue with a velvety lustre before ripening, dark brown when 

 mature, ellipsoid, with an obtuse apex, about 4 inches long by 2 inches in diameter. 

 Scales fan-shaped ; lamina 1 inch wide, f inch long, upper margin undulate, lateral 

 margins with two denticulate wings ; claw broadly obcuneate. Bract with a broad 

 obcuneate claw, expanding just above the base of the scale, into a broadly oval 

 lamina, which is emarginate at the apex with a short mucro. Seed-wing nearly twice 

 the length of the body of the seed ; seed with wing about f inch long. 



The cones show that the tree is nearly related to Abies Webbiana ; but it differs 

 entirely from that species in the characters of the branchlets and foliage. 



1 Cf. Kew Bulletin, 1906, pp. 260, 268. 



1 Abies Mariesii, Masters, Bot. Mag. t. 8098 (1 906), described from a tree at Dunphail, Morayshire, is referable to 

 A. Webbiana, as mentioned in our account of the latter species. 



