Illustrations of Conifers. 17 



ABIES MAGNIFICA (Murray). RED FIR. 



Gardeners' Chronicle, Vol. XXIV. p. 652 (1885), withfiy. 



Veitch's Man. Conif. ed. 2, p. 516 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. IV. p. 792 (1909). 



A TREE attaining in America a height of over 200 feet with a trunk 30 

 feet in girth. Bark thick, red-brown and deeply fissured. Cultivated 

 specimens have always a characteristic habit, the trunk being straight 

 and tapering with the branches very short and slender in proportion 

 to the height and girth of stem, horizontally spreading and regularly 

 whorled. 



Branchlets clothed with a rusty-brown pubescence. Buds ovoid, 

 globose, resinous. Leaves on lateral branches pectinate below ; those 

 on the upper side shorter, partially covering the shoot, appressed to the 

 branchlet near their base and then curving upwards, greyish or glaucous- 

 green, up to 1J inch long, linear, obscurely-quadrangular in section, 

 apex rounded, entire, upper surface not grooved but with a central 

 ridge and several rows of stomata ; lower surface with two bands of 

 stomata. 



Cones large, cylindric, obtuse, 6 - 9 inches long by 3 - 5 inches in 

 diameter, slightly tapering at the apex, purplish-violet at first but 

 becoming brown when ripe, pubescent ; scales triangular - cuneate ; 

 bracts lanceolate with a small mucro at the apex, about three-fourths 

 as long as the scale. Seed about % inch long with a wing a little 

 exceeding that length. 



This handsome tree grows wild on the mountains of southern 

 Oregon and California, and is common on Mount Shasta between 6,000 

 and 8,000 feet elevation. It is also found on the western slopes of the 

 Sierra Nevada at a similar elevation, forming extensive forests. 



Abies magnified was introduced in 1851 by John Jeffrey, and was 

 first believed to be A. amabilis, but afterwards plants were distri- 

 buted by Messrs. Veitch as A. nobilis var. robusta. 



The Bayfordbury specimen, which is one of the best in England, 

 now measures 55 feet, by 4 feet 9 inches in girth. It was planted in 

 1850. (See Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. IV. plate 222). 

 The cone represented was produced by the Bayfordbury tree in 1907. 



