118 CONIFER.E. Abies. 



* Leaves flat or flattish. 



•t- Upper side of the leaves dark green, glossy and without stomata. 



++ Leaves acute: linear tip of the bracts long-exserted. 



1. A. bracteata, Xutt. A Uill slciuler strictly pyniuiidal tive, 100 to 150 feet 

 lugh and 1 ur 2 Icet in diameter, with brown bark : leaves mostly somewliat 2- 

 ranked, linear or linear-lanceolate, an inch or two long by 1 to 1^ lines wide, with 

 two pale (or in young leaves white) bands beneath : cones oval to subcylindric, 3 or 4 

 inches long and 1| to 2 inclies thick; bracts cuneate-obcordate, scarcely exceeding 

 the transversely oval glal)rons scales, terminating in elongated linear f(;liaceous mid- 

 ribs or awns (1 to U, inches long) : seeds as long as the obovate rounded wing. — 

 Sylva, iii. 137, t. flS; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 4740; j\rurr. in Edinb. New I'hil. 

 Journ. X. 1, t. 2; Engelm. 1. c. GOl. Linus venusta, Dougl. in Comp. Dot. Mag. ii. 

 152, P. bracteata, Don, Trans. Linn. 8oc. xvii. 442. Picea bracteata, Loud. 



Tlius far only known from the Santa Lutia Mountains, at an elevation of 3,000 to 6,000 feet. 

 The pointed buds are unusually large for the genus (about half an ineli long), covered witli im- 

 bricated scales. 



++ ++ Leaves obtuse or emarginate: bracts enclosed. 



2. A. grandis, Lindl. Very tall (200 to 300 feet high and 3 or 4 feet in diame- 

 ter), with smooth brownish bark : leaves channelled above and glossy, with two 

 pale or white bands beneath, an inch or two long and somewhat 2-ranked on the 

 younger or lower branches, on the higher branchlets shorter, somewhat cuneate, and 

 crowded on their upper side: cones cylindric, retuse, 2 to 4 inches long, with scales (13 

 or 14 lines wide) nearly twice broader than high, the quite short obcordate or 2- 

 lobed bracts with or witliout a short point : wing of the seeds very oblique, about 

 as broad as long. — Penny Cyc. i. 30 ; Engelm. 1. c. 598. Pinns gi-andis, Dougl.; 

 Parlat. P. amabilis, Di)ugl. ] ; not of hiter authors. Picea grandis, Loud. Arbor, iv. 

 2341, fig.; Newberry, Pacif. P. Pep. vi. 46, fig. 16 and t. 6. 



Confined principally to the nortliern Pacific Coast, where it extends from British Colnndna to 

 Nortliern California, as far soutli as Mendocino. Probably the largest fir known ; in Oregon one 

 of the important tiinbei-trees, tliough tiie wood is inferior to that of tlie Douglas and Sitcha spruces. 

 Readily distinguished from the mountain lirs Viy the glossy green upper surface of the leaves, and 

 by the other cliaracters enumerated above. 



•»- -t- Leaves pale and with stomata on both sides. 



3. A. COncolor, Lindl. A large tree, 80 to 150 feet high with a diameter of 2 

 to 4 feet, with rough grayish bark : leaves mostly obtuse, pale green, those of 

 younger trees and lower branches elongated, 2 to 2i and even 3 inches long, 2- 

 ranked, often slightly channelled and nutched, those of old trees and of upper cone- 

 bearing branches shorter (an inch long), broader, thicker, convex above and often 

 falcate, covering the upper side of the branchlets : cones oblong-cylindrical, 3, 4, or 

 even 5 inches long and 1^ to 1| inches in diameter, pale green or sometimes dull 

 purplish; scales (12 to 15 lines wide) nearly twice wider than high; bracts short, 

 enclosed, truncate or emarginate, with or without a short mucro : wing of the seeds 

 oblique, as long as broad : cotyledons 5 to 7. — Journ. Ilort. Soc. v. 210 ; Engelm. 

 1. c. 600, and Wheeler's Pep. vi. 255. Picea concol6r, (Jordon, Pin. 155. Pinus 

 concolor, Engelm. ; Parlat. in DC. Prodr. xvi'^. 426. Abies Lowiana, Mtirr. A. 

 grandis of the Califitrnian botanists. A. amabilis {]), Watson, JJot. King I'l.xp. 333. 



A common fir throughout the Californian Sierras, from 3,000 or 4,000 to 8,000 feet elevation, 

 extending into Southern Oregon and through the mountains of Arizona to Utah and S. Colorado. 

 Always readily ivcogniz.'d by the gray bark of the trunk (whence often called in California 

 "White Fir"), and by the pale color of the foliage, which at last becomes dull green. A very 

 ornamental tree, esi)ecially the jtaler variety, but the timber is not much esteemed. J. Lowiana, 

 known also in nurseries as A. Parsoniana, lasiooirpa and anmbUis, distinguished by its longer 

 flatter straighter leaves with fewer stomata on the upper side, is a young and vigorous state of 

 this si>ecies, which has not yet fruited in cultivation. 



