84 



The Firs 



5 cm. thick, is deeply furrowed into broad ridges, which are broken into closely 

 adherent reddish brown scales; that of younger trees is much thinner, smooth, and 

 paler. The slender twigs are covered with short hairs, hght red-brown, gradually 

 becoming smooth and darker with age. The ovoid winter buds are 6 mm. long, 

 resinous, and covered by sharp-pointed brown scales. The leaves are 2.5 to 4 cm. 

 long, light green ; those on the lower branches are spreading, somewhat flattened, 



Fig. 64. Noble Fir. 



deeply grooved on the upper surface, keeled beneath, rounded or notched at the 

 apex; those on the upper fertile branches are erect, incurv-ed, and crowded, thick, 

 nearly 4-sided, and sharp-pointed. The staminate flowers are cyhndric, 1.5 to 

 2.5 cm. long, of a reddish or purple color, the pistillate flowers also cyhndric, 2.5 

 to 4 cm. long. The cones are cylindric-oblong, somewhat narrowed at the base 

 and the apex, 10 to 15 cm. long, finely hairy, purphsh or brown and character- 

 ized by the projecting recurved tips of the bracts; the fan-shaped scales are about 

 3.5 cm. wide, and about as long; the papery bracts about 4 cm. long, with fringed 

 margins and long tapering point, project beyond and are reflexed over the cone- 

 scales so as to almost cover them. The brown seed, about i cm. long, is provided 

 with a very broad wing. 



