224. ABIES GRANDIS GREAT SILVER FIR. 51 



struction purposes, though its merits do not seem to be generally 

 appreciated probably on account of the poor reputation of its east- 

 ern relative. It will doubtless come into far greater prominence as 

 the supply of firs and redwoods becomes more reduced. It furnishes 

 a very good pulp for paper-making and its bark, which is richer in 

 tannin than that of the eastern species, is considered the best bark for 

 tanning purposes produced in the forests of Oregon, "Washington and 

 British Columbia. The inner bark of this tree possesses nutritive value. * 



GENUS ABIES, LINK. 



Leaves sessile, short, solitary, usually more or less flattened and entire, with 

 circular and not prominent bases, often emarginate, more or less two-ranked 

 especially on the horizontal branches and young trees by a twist near the base, 

 bearing stoinata usually only below, with two resin ducts; branchlets smooth, 

 bearing the more or less circular not prominent leaf scars Flowers from the 

 axils of last year's leaves ; the staminate borne in abundance along the under 

 side of the branchlets, oblong or cylindrical, with short stipes surrounded by 

 numerous bud-scales ; anther-cells two, extrorse, opening transversly, the con- 

 nective terminating in a knob ; pollen grains large with two air sacs ; pistillate 

 flowers erect, with bracts larger than the scales ; ovules two, adnate to the inner 

 side of each scale near the base. Cones erect upon the upper branches and matur- 

 ing the first year, sessile, nearly cylindrical, with numerous spirally arranged, 

 imbricated, carpellary scales, each in the axil of a thin membranous bract which 

 with the scale falls away at maturity from the persistent axis ; seed covered with 

 resin- vesicles and each bearing a membranous wing, the base of which covers 

 the outer and laps over upon the inner surface ; cotyledons 4 to 10. 



Trees of about sixteen or eighteen species, generally of remarkable pyramidal 

 growth, confined to the northern hemisphere of both continents and represented 

 in the United States by nine species mostly on the Pacific Slope. (Abies is the 

 ancient Latin name of the Fir.) 



224. ABIES GRANDIS, LINDL. 

 GREAT SILVER FIR. 



Ger., Grosze Tanne ; Fr., Sapin grand ; Sp., Abeto grande. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaces lustrous dark green, with deep central groove 

 above, and two silvery white stomatose bands beneath, rather thin and flexible, 

 those of the sterile branches ^ in. long and about in. broad, widely two-ranked, 

 conspicuously emarginate at apex ; leaves of the cone-bearing branchlets more 

 crowded, somewhat shorter, rather erect on the upper side of the branchlet 

 than two-ranked, and notched or bluntly pointed at apex ; those on young shoots 

 acute at apex ; winter buds globose, \ in. or less in length and copiously resin- 

 coated ; branchlets rather slender and puberalous the first season. Flowers 

 staminate oblong, i-| in. in length with pale yellow anthers ; pistillate cylindri- 

 cal, slender, f-l in. long and ^ in. thick, with light yellowish green scales having 

 reflexed tips. Fruit, cones, cylindrical, from 2-4 in. long and 1-1| in. thick, 

 rounded and often retuse at apex with bright green and puberulous scales aver- 

 aging about 1 in. in. width and two-thirds as wide, abruptly narrowing from 

 the broad apex ; bracts included, scarcely half as long as the scale, obcordate, 

 laciniate and generally with a short mucro ; seeds f in. long, brown, with pale 

 brown wings ^-| in. long, and nearly as broad near the rounded end. 



The specific name, grandis, the Latin for great, is descriptive of the grand 

 stature of the tree. 



* For an interesting account of this curious food and the process of preparation see Sargent's 

 Silva XI. p. 93. yote. 



