56 TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



shaped plate-like scales. Wood very light, soft, coarse-grained and not strong nor durable, 

 pale brown or sometimes nearly white; occasionally manufactured into lumber, in northern 

 California used for packing-cases and butter-tubs. 



Distribution. Rocky Mountains of southern Colorado, westward to the mountain 

 ranges of California, extending northward into northern Oregon, and southward over 



Fig. 56 



the mountains of New Mexico and Arizona into northern Mexico and Lower California 

 (Mt. San Pedro Martir Mountains) ; the only Fir-tree in the arid regions of the Great Basin, 

 of southern New Mexico and Arizona, and of the mountain forests of southern California. 



Often planted as an ornamental tree in Europe (the California form usually as A. 

 Lowiana Murr.) and in the eastern states where it grows more vigorously than other Fir- 

 trees. 



6. Abies amabilis Forbes. White Fir. 



Leaves deeply grooved, very dark green and lustrous on the upper surface, silvery white 

 on the lower, with broad bands of 6 or 8 rows of stomata between the prominent midribs 

 and incurved margins, on sterile branches obtuse and rounded, or notched or occasionally 

 acute at apex, t'-l|' long, -fa' fa' wide, often broadest above the middle, erect by a 

 twist at their base, very crowded, those on the upper side of the branch much shorter 

 than those on the low r er and usually parallel with and closely appressed against it, on 

 fertile branches acute or acuminate with callous tips, occasionally stomatiferous on the 

 upper surface near the apex, I'-f long; on vigorous leading shoots acute, with long rigid 

 points, closely appressed or recurved near the middle, about f ' long and nearly |' wide. 

 Flowers: male red; female with broad rounded scales and rhombic dark purple lustrous 

 bracts erose above the middle and gradually contracted into broad points. Fruit oblong, 

 slightly narrowed to the rounded and often retuse apex, deep rich purple, puberulous, 3|'-6' 

 long, with scales \'-\\' wide, nearly as long as broad, gradually narrowed from the rounded 

 apex and rather more than twice as long as their reddish rhombic or oblong-obovate bracts 

 terminating in long slender tips; seeds light yellow-brown, \' long, with oblique pale brown 

 lustrous wings about \ ' long. 



A tree, often 250 tall, or at high altitudes and in the north usually not more than 70-80 

 tall, with a trunk 4-6 in diameter, in thick forests often naked for 150, but in open sit- 

 uations densely clothed to the ground with comparatively short branches sweeping down 

 in graceful curves, and stout branchlets clothed for four or five years with soft fine pu- 

 bescence, light orange-brown in their first season, becoming dark purple and ultimately 

 reddish brown. Winter-buds nearly globose, \'-\' thick, with closely imbricated lus- 

 trous purple scales. Bark on trees up to 150 years old thin, smooth, pale or silvery white, 



