Illustrations of Conifers. 23 



ABIES PINDROW (Spach). 



Gardeners' Chronicle, Vol. XXV. p. 691 (1886) with fig. 



Veitch's Man. Com/, ed. 2, p. 588 (1900). 



Trees of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. IV. p. 755 (1909). 



A TREE of narrow pyramidal habit with branches short and more or 

 less deflexed, attaining a height of over 200 feet and a girth of 25 

 feet. Bark of trunk greyish-brown, with deep longitudinal fissures 

 when old. 



Young branchlets glabrous, smooth. Buds large, globose, en- 

 crusted with resin. Leaves on lateral branchlets irregularly arranged, 

 those below mostly pectinate, with some directed downwards ; those 

 above covering the branchlet, the middle ones much shorter and 

 pointing forwards ; linear, flattened, up to 2 inches long, tapering 

 to the unequally bifid apex ; upper surface dark shining green and 

 grooved ; lower surface with two greyish bands of stomata. 



Cones cylindric, obtuse, 4 - 5 inches long, by about 3 inches in 

 diameter, violet-purple, changing to dark brown when mature ; scales 

 sub-rhomboidal with a small wedge-shaped claw ; bracts about a third 

 as long as the scale. Seed with wing about an inch long. 



This fir is a native of the Himalayas from Chitral to Nepal, oc- 

 curring at lower levels than its near ally Abies Webbiana, and has a 

 more restricted distribution. It is found at elevations of 7,000 to 

 10,000 feet, and according to Madden forms dense forests on all the 

 great spurs of Kumaon and also spreads westward into Kashmir. 



Abies Pindrow was introduced into cultivation about 1837, when 

 young plants were raised by the Horticultural Society from cones pre- 

 sented by Dr. Royle. 



This species was first planted at Bayfordbury in 1852, but did not 

 survive the severe winter of 1860. There is tree in Black Fan wood 

 measuring 32 feet in height by 1 foot 5 inches in girth. A young 

 tree was planted in the Pinetum in 1906. 



