50 HOUGH'S AMERICAN WOODS. 



248. ABIES VENUSTA (DOUGL.) KOCH.* 

 BRISTLE-CONE FIR. SANTA LUCIA SILVER FIR. 



Ger., Tanne von Santa Lucia; Fr., Sapin de Santa Lucia' Sp., 

 Abeto de Santa Lucia. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS : Leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, from 1^ to nearly 

 21 in. long and about \ in. wide, acuminate, with stiff prickly tips, quite flat, 

 rfgid, dark lustrous green and slightly rounded above, silvery white with 8-10 

 rows of stomata beneath, rather remote, spreading, and two-ranked on the 

 sterile branchlets by a twisting near the bases of the leaves, which when break- 

 ing away leave oval scars; resin ducts close to epidermis; buds large, ^-1 in. long, 

 acute, with thin imbricated scales. Flowers open early in May surrounded at 

 the bases with conspicuous involucres formed by the scarious silvery white bud 

 scales; the staminate flowers produced in abundance near the bases of branchlets 

 on the upper half of the tree, cylindrical, averaging about 1 in. in length, with 

 pale yellow but later reddish brown anthers and with slender pedicels; pistillate 

 flowers near the tips of the branchlets of the upper branches only, oblong, 

 about 1 in. long, with rounded scales nearly as long as the bracts which are 

 yellow-green, obcordate and with long slender awns. Cones ovoid-cylindrical, 

 purple-brown, f in. long, rounded at apex, having thin scales with incurved 

 denticulate margins and about one-third longer than the bracts which are pale 

 yellowish brown, linear, obcordate, with rigid long foliaceous midribs exserted, 

 from 1 to nearly 2 in. in length: seeds dark brown, about | in. long, with oblong- 

 obovate lustrous wing about in. long. 



This singular fir rarely attains a greater height than 100 ft. (33 m.) 

 or greater diameter of trunk than 3 ft. (0.90 m.) This is covered with 

 a reddish-brown bark broken into irregular closely appressed scales on 

 which persist for a time the resin- blisters of the younger bark. Its 

 habit of growth easily distinguishes it from other firs, as its top is of 

 slender spire-shape above and swells out abruptly below into a wide 

 base of longer horizontal and drooping branches. Its lateral branch- 

 lets are remote, and being sparsely clothed with long leaves, dark 

 green above and silvery white beneath, the tree is readily distinguished 

 from all its neighbors, and pronounced one of singular habit of growth. 



HABITAT. Few known trees have as limited an area of distribution, 

 being found only among the rugged fastnesses of the Santa Lucia 

 mountains, in the western part of Monterey Co , California, and there 

 was long supposed to be confined to the moist soil of the bottoms of only 

 a few canons. The recent explorations of Prof. W. R. Dudley, how- 

 ever, have added much to our knowledge on this point. He has found 

 the tree in considerable abundance to the northward of the previously 

 known range, and now designates its region of distribution as being 

 an area of about fifty miles in north and south direction, and from 

 near the coast inland at least eighteen miles, and that its vertical range 

 is between the altitudes of fifteen hundred and five thousand feet. 



* A bracteata, Nutt. 



