808 The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



ABIES RELIGIOSA, Mexican Fir 



Abies religiosa, Schlechtendal, Linncea, v. 77 (1830); Lindley, Penny. Cyel. i. 31 (1833); Seemann, 



Bot. Voy. 'Herald,' 335 (1852-1857); Hooker, Bot. Mag. t. 6753 (1884); Masters, Gard. 



Chron. xxiii. 56, f. 13 (1885), and ix. 304, ff. 69, 70 (1891), and Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) 



xxii. 194, t 6 (1886); Kent, Veitch's Man. Coniferce, 536 (1900). 

 Abies hirtella, Lindley, loc. cit. (1833). 

 Pinus religiosa, Humboldt, Bonpland et Kunth, Nov. Gen. et Spec. ii. 5 (18 17); Parlatore, in DC. 



Prod. xvi. 2, p. 420 (1868). 

 Pinus hirtella, Humboldt, Blonpland et Kunth, loc. cit. (181 7). 

 Picea religiosa, Loudon, Arb. et Prut. Brit. iv. 2349 (1838). 

 Picea hirtella, Loudon, loc. cit. (1838). 



A tree, attaining in Mexico 150 feet in height and 18 feet in girth. Bark 1 

 greyish-white, rough, divided into small roundish plates. 



Buds shortly cylindrical, rounded at the apex, covered with white resin. Young 

 shoots brown on the upper surface, olive green beneath, covered with minute erect 

 pubescence ; pulvini prominent. Second year's shoots reddish-brown, smooth, and 

 striate between the pulvini, which are no longer raised. 



Leaves on lateral branches, arranged as in A. Nordmanniana ; but with the 

 median upper leaves much fewer than in that species, covering the upper side of 

 the branchlet, and pointing forwards and slightly upwards ; lower leaves in two 

 lateral sets, spreading outwards and slightly forwards in the horizontal plane. 

 Leaves twisted above the base, linear, flattened, gradually narrowing in the anterior 

 half to an obtuse apex, which is usually entire or rarely minutely bifid ; upper 

 surface dark green, shining, with a median groove (usually not continued to the 

 apex) and without stomata; 2 lower surface with two greyish bands of stomata, 

 each of eight to ten lines ; resin-canals marginal. The upper leaves are about 

 half the length of those below, the latter about an inch in length and about T * ff inch 

 broad. Leaves on cone-bearing branches similar to those on barren branches. 



Cones on short stout stalks, 4 inches long, 2 inches in diameter, conical, broadest 

 near the base and gradually tapering to an obtuse and narrowed apex, bluish before 

 ripening, dark brown when mature, the large reflexed bracts being then of a chestnut 

 brown colour. Scales broadly fan-shaped, nearly \\ inch wide by f inch long ; upper 

 margin almost entire ; lateral margins laciniate and denticulate ; base broad with a 

 sinus on each side of the short obcuneate claw. Bract : claw wide, obcuneate ; 

 lamina quadrangular, denticulate, emarginate with a short triangular cusp. Seed with 

 wing about inch long ; wing broad and \\ times the length of the body of the seed. 



Distribution 



This species extends throughout the mountains of Mexico, from near Durango 

 in the Sierra Madre range (lat. 24 ), where it was collected by Seemann, 8 to the 



1 In this tree, as in the other species with prominent pulvini on the branchlets, the bark of the trunk speedily becomes 

 scaly and like that of a spruce, not remaining smooth for a considerable period, as in the common species of silver fir. 



2 On leaves towards the tip of the shoot, short irregular lines of stomata are present on their upper surface near the apex. 

 Some of these leaves turn their ventral surfaces upwards towards the light. 3 Bot. Voy. Herald, 335 (1852). 



