796 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



ABIES BRACTEATA, Bristle-Cone Fir 



Abies bracteata, Nuttall, Sylva N. Amer. iii. 137, t. 118 (1849); Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 4740 

 (1853); Masters, Gard. Ckron.v. 242, f. 44 (1889), and vii. 672, f. 112 (1890); Kent, Veitch's 

 Man. Coni/erce, 493 (1900). 



Abies venusta, Koch, Dendrol. ii. 210 (1873); Sargent, Silva N. Amer. xii. 129, tt. 615, 616 

 (1898), and Trees N. Amer. 63 (1905). 



Pinus venusta, Douglas, Comp. Bot. Mag. ii. 152 (1836). 



Pinus bracteata, Don, Trans. Linn. Soc. xvii. 442 (1837). 



Picea bracteata, Loudon, Arb. et Frut. Brit. iv. 2348 (1838); Coleman, Garden, xxxv. 12, with fig. 

 (1889). 



A tree attaining in America 150 feet in height and 9 feet in girth. Bark 

 brown, smooth ; becoming, near the base in old trees, slightly fissured and broken 

 into thick appressed scales. Buds unique in the genus, elongated, fusiform, 

 broadest near the base, and gradually tapering to a sharp point, about \ to f inch 

 long, brown in colour, non-resinous ; scales thin, membranous, glabrous, loosely 

 imbricated, obtuse at the apex, shorter at the base of the bud, gradually lengthening 

 above. Young shoots glabrous, greenish, with slightly raised pulvini and incon- 

 spicuous furrows. Base of the shoots usually ringed with the scars of the 

 previous season's bud-scales, which in most cases all fall off and do not persist in 

 part, as is usual in other species. 



Leaves on lateral branches pectinately arranged, those below spreading 

 outwards in two sets in the horizontal plane ; those above slightly shorter, falcate, 

 directed outwards and slightly upwards and forwards, forming a shallow V-shaped 

 depression on the upper side of the branchlet. Leaves, up to 2 inches long, ^ inch 

 wide, rigid, thin, flat, linear, ending in long spine-like cartilaginous points, never 

 bifid ; widest in the lower third, gradually tapering to the apex, and abruptly 

 narrowed close to the base ; upper surface dark-green, shining, slightly concave in 

 the lower half and flat near the apex, no definite median groove being formed ; lower 

 surface with two wide white bands of stomata, each of 10 to 12 lines; resin-canals 

 marginal. Leaves on cone-bearing branches upturned, falcate. 



Male flowers, \\ to \\ inch long, cylindric, shortly-stalked, surrounded at the 

 base by numerous lanceolate, fawn-coloured parchment-like scales, similar to 

 those of the leaf-buds. Pistillate flowers, with oblong scales rounded above and 

 nearly as long as the cuneate obcordate yellow-green bracts, which end in slender 

 elongated awns. 



Cones, remarkable for the long spiny rigid tips to the bracts, ovoid, rounded 

 and full at the apex, 3 to 4 inches long, about 2 inches in diameter, glabrous, 1 

 resinous, purplish brown. Scales, about 1 inch broad by \ inch long, almost 

 reniform ; upper margin incurved, with a short obtuse denticulate cusp ; claw 

 obcuneate. Bracts oblong-obovate, adnate to the scale to beyond the middle and 



1 Remarkable, as all the other species of Abies have the scales of the cones pubescent. 



