128 ABIES ABUTILON 



dark glossy green and grooved above, vividly white with stomatic lines 

 beneath. All the leaves point forwards, and most of them curve more or less 

 upwards ; a few occur underneath the shoot, but most of them are above it or 

 at the sides. On lateral shoots growing erect or nearly erect, the leaves are 

 arranged about equally round the twig. Cones cylindrical, 2 to 2| ins. long, 

 about i in. wide ; blue-purple at first. 



Discovered on Fuji-yama, Japan, by John Gould Veitch in 1860. Introduced 

 by Maries in 1879. Among silver firs this species is very distinct, on 

 account of the narrow truncate leaves, pointed forwards and curving upwards, 

 and intensely blue-white beneath. The best tree I have seen is at 

 Murthly, which in 1906 was just over 30 ft. high ; it is a particularly handsome 

 conifer in a small state, but appears inclined- to develop a rather lanky habit 

 with age. 



A. WEBBIANA, Lindley. HIMALAYAN FIR. 



(Bot. Mag., t. 8098 as "A. Mariesii.") 



A tree up to 1 50 ft. high in nature, with a trunk 6 or 7 ft. in diameter ; 

 young shoots very stout, rough, downy in the grooves between the leaf-bases ; 

 buds resinous. Leaves aggregated in two opposite sets so as to leave a 

 V-shaped opening along the top, the lower ones on each side spreading 

 horizontally ; they are, individually, i to 2 ins. long, ^ to in. wide, linear, 

 distinctly notched at the apex ; dark green, glossy, and deeply grooved above, 

 and with two broad, vividly blue-white bands of stomata beneath. Cones 5 or 

 6 ins. long, 3 ins. in diameter, violet-purple at first, ultimately brown. 



Native of the Himalaya; introduced about 1822. This striking fir is very 

 distinct in its large leaves, so vividly white beneath, and in its large, globose, 

 very resinous buds, but it is not a success in this country generally. The finest 

 trees I have seen are in Cornwall, Scotland, and at Fota, near Cork. In the 

 south of England it is too frequently injured by late spring frosts to be of much 

 use ; but seen at its best and comparatively young, it is a handsome tree. 



ABUTILON VITIFOLIUM, De Candolle. MALVACEAE. 

 (Bot. Reg., vol. 30, t. 57.) 



A soft-wooded shrub, or almost a tree, sometimes 15 to 30 ft. high, 

 more usually about half as high ; young wood covered with a white down, 

 Leaves alternate, long-stalked, three- or five-lobed, maple-like, heart- 

 shaped at the base ; varying much in size according to the vigour and 

 age of the plant, but usually between 4 and 6 ins. long, three-fourths as 

 wide ; each lobe ends in a drawn-out point, and is coarsely and unevenly 

 toothed; both surfaces (but especially the lower one) covered with 

 greyish tufted hairs. Flowers borne, three or four together, towards 

 the end of a woolly stalk, 3 to 5 ins. long, springing from the leaf-axils ; 

 each flower measures z\ to 3 ins. across, has five rounded petals of a 

 beautiful pale, purplish blue, and is in form rather like the flower of 

 a "single" hollyhock. 



The flowers vary in colour, and in one form, to which the name 

 ALBA has been given, they are snow-white. This usually comes true from 

 seed, but occasionally the purplish flowered form appears amongst the 

 seedlings, just as seeds of the purplish one will sometimes produce the 

 white one. 



