Illustrations of Conifers. 9 



ABIES CEPHALONICA (Loudori). GREEK FIR. 



Gardeners' Chronicle, Vol. XXII. p. 592 (1884) with fig. 



Veitch's Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 498 (1900). 



Tree* of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. IV. p. 789 (1909). 



A TREE attaining a height of about 100 feet with a stem 9 to 15 feet 

 in girth. The bark, which is smooth and greyish-brown in young 

 trees, becomes eventually fissured into small plates. 



Buds conical or ovoid, resinous. Branchlets smooth, light-brown, 

 glabrous. Leaves radially arranged, those of the upper ranks shorter 

 than those beneath, linear, flattened, curved, rigid, about 1 inch long 

 by one-sixteenth to one-twelfth inch broad, tapering at the base and 

 ending in a long cartilaginous point ; upper surface dark-green, shining, 

 with several broken lines of stomata ; lower surface with two white 

 bands of stomata. 



Cones about 6 inches long by 1 inch in diameter, cylindrical, 

 brownish, with the bracts golden brown, exposed and reflexed. Scales 

 narrowly fan-shaped ; bract extending about three-quarters the length 

 of the scale and ending in a triangular mucro which is exserted and 

 reflexed over the edge of the scale next below ; seed with wing about 

 one inch long. 



This species is a native of the higher mountains of Greece, between 

 2,700 and 5,700 feet elevation. On Mount Enos in Cephalonia there 

 was formerly a forest of this fir 12 to 15 miles in length and 36 

 miles in circumference, but its area has been much reduced by 

 fires. 



Abies cephalonica was introduced into cultivation by General Sir 

 Charles Napier, who sent seeds to England in 1824. 



There is a good specimen of this tree at Bayfordbury measuring 

 70 feet high by 6 feet 11 inches in girth. It was planted in 1847. 



