10 Illustrations of Conifers. 



ABIES CILICICA (Carriere). 



Veitch'g Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 600 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. IV. p. 744 (1909). 



A TREE which attains in Asia Minor 100 feet in height and 7 feet in 

 girth. Bark ashy-grey in colour, smooth when young, but becoming 

 fissured in old trees. 



Branchlets greyish-brown with scattered short pubescence. Buds 

 small, non-resinous, ovoid. Leaves pectinate, the upper ranks pointing 

 outwards and upwards, forming a V-shaped depression between the two 

 sets ; on vigorous shoots the median leaves cover the upper side of 

 the branchlet. Leaves slender, 1 to 1 inch long, by one-sixteenth 

 inch wide, linear, flattened, tapering at the base ; apex rounded or 

 acute and slightly bifid ; upper surface light-green, lower surface with 

 two narrow greyish bands of stomata. 



Cones cylindrical, 6 - 9 inches long by 2 - 2| inches in diameter in 

 wild specimens, brownish when mature ; scales very large, fan-shaped, 

 If inch wide by seven-eighths inch long; bract extending to one- 

 third or one-half the height of the scale, tipped with a short mucro ; 

 seed with wing 1J inch long. In cultivated specimens the scales are 

 smaller and the bracts shorter. 



The native habitats of Abies cilicica are in Asia Minor and northern 

 Syria, where it occurs on the Lebanon and the Antitaurus forming 

 forests in company with the cedar. It was discovered by Kotschy in 

 the Cilician Taurus in 1853 at an elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet. 



This fir was introduced about 1855, but is very scarce in col- 

 lections. It was planted at Bayfordbury in 1908. 



The cone photographed is under the average size and was grown 

 at Durris, Kincardineshire. 



